Top girls’ school cancels lecture by ‘dinosaur in a suit’ who used this picture to push his f irm
A TOP girls’ school has cancelled a lecture by a multi- millionaire businessman after he sponsored a ‘ tawdry’ awards ceremony and used pictures of semi-naked women to promote his company.
Lawrence Jones, founder of technology business UKFast, was described as a ‘dinosaur in a suit’ after he sponsored the awards ceremony in Manchester, where scantily clad women performed burlesque routines.
Mr Jones, 49, has also promoted his company’s Swiss ski lodge by using a picture of a woman apparently naked, save for her jacket and boots, and has posted photos of female staff dressed in bikinis and hotpants on the firm’s blog.
His actions angered alumnae of the £11,472-a-year Manchester High School for Girls, where he was due to deliver the annual Founders’ Lecture next month.
Five former pupils contacted the school – where suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst sent her daughters – after learning of his involvement at the lecture.
Feminist blogger Aisha Ali-Khan also called Jones an ‘old-fashioned dinosaur’ and asked: ‘How can [the school] allow a known misogynist such as Mr Jones a platform given its illustrious historical connections to Emmeline Pankhurst?’
Headmistress Claire Hewitt told The Mail on Sunday that some of the 4,000 alumnae had ‘reservations’ about Mr Jones, who has an estimated £300 million fortune, ‘and some concerns about the marketing of his business’.
She said: ‘In view of these reservations, we have decided not to go ahead with this year’s event.’ Man- chester High is one of Britain’s best performing schools, with 85 per cent of its pupils achieving A-star or A grades in GCSEs last year. Alumnae include Facebook’s European boss Nicola Mendelsohn and TV presenter Judy Finnigan.
Concerns surfaced about Mr Jones after a backlash over the Digital Entrepreneur Awards, which he sponsors. The event in November featured showgirls in feathers and hotpants, while female winners were said to have been subjected to ‘very sexist’ comments as they collected awards.
On social media, guests criticised the event as ‘tawdry’ and likened it to ‘going back to the days of Bernard Manning’.
UKFast has also come under fire for a 2016 advert for its ski lodge in Verbier, which appeared to show a model semi-naked.
In a blog post from 2010 – which has since been deleted – Mr Jones described UKFast’s female employees as ‘fun characters with… the caring gene which means they make the perfect hostesses’.
UKFast said: ‘We accept that mistakes were made in our marketing some years ago.’
‘Going back to the days of Bernard Manning’