George Milford Haven - A business founder and a gentleman

TITLE: George Milford Haven a business founder and a gentleman George Ivar Louis Mountbatten of Milford Haven (also referred to as George Mountbatten and George Milford Haven), a cousin of the Queen, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven and a Lord in the line of succession to the British throne, is best known for being the founder of uSwitch.com. The online comparison website founded in 2000 with the aim of helping consumers make informed decisions when choosing suppliers for a variety of services. uSwitch.com started trading shortly after the deregulation of the UK’s gas and electricity markets. Thanks to the savings that consumers were able to make, uSwitch soon became a consumer champion.

George Milford Haven’s inspiration to create uSwitch.com stemmed from the methods used by a door to door sales company that he was involved with a few years earlier. He had heard stories from staff at the company who were out visiting potential customers, knocking on doors and trying to make sales, which spurred on his desire to improve the way the public obtained the information they sought when making their decision to switch suppliers. He spotted a gap in the market and saw his idea through to implementation and ultimately, fruition, while most importantly, bringing the choices of the consumer to the forefront.

A savvy entrepreneur, George Milford Haven built the company from the ground up and sold it a mere six years later for $400 million! But that wasn’t enough - he has gone on to become involved in a new venture called EnCazip (a Turkey-based business), constructed on the same business model as uSwitch.

George Milford Haven is not only at the top of his game in business, but is also at the top in the game of polo. A keen polo player, he owns one of the grandest polo fields in the UK, the mainstay of polo in Southern England, Trippetts Polo Club. It houses 350 polo ponies, is a place to call home for up to 70 grooms, and has a whopping 26 paddocks.

It may soon become an all-weather polo ground, subject to planning permission, which would be a first for UK polo, once again George Milford Haven forging the way in his innovative, ambitious style. It is also the Mounbatten family’s UK home where George Mountbatten and Clare Husted Steel (married in 1997) share a great love for polo.

Bearing one of the most, noble names in the UK, the Mountbatten family history is an interesting one, originating from a branch of the Royal Battenberg family of Germany. The slight name difference may be confusing, but it was primarily due to the anti-German sentiment throughout Britain at the height of World War I, during which time the family was forced to adopt the name change. George Mountbatten (born Earl of Medina) is the eldest son of the

3rd Marquess of Milford Haven, his father, who sadly passed away in 1970, making George Mountbatten the 4th Marquess and head of the House of Mountbatten. He is also a direct descendant of Alexander Pushkin and Catherine the Great of Russia. His son, Henry David Louis Mountbatten is now Earl of Medina and will be the 5th Marquess of Milford Haven. Prior to the marriage of George Milford to Clare Husted Steel, he was married to Sarah Georgina Walker in 1989. They had two children, a daughter, Lady Tatiana Helen Georgia Mountbatten and his son.

The marriage failed and the couple divorced in 1996.

George Mountbatten is not just the founder of uSwitch and extraordinary businessman who made an eye-watering profit with the sale of the company, but a gentleman with heart. He said that the best thing about the service offered by uSwitch was that he earned money by actually helping others to save theirs and after the sale of the business, he was yet again not the only person to benefit with 9% of the profits having been distributed to members of the management team and to 100 other staff members that had been instrumental in the success.