Stewart Butler
World Options U.K – Chief Technology Officer
A Mancunian who lived on some of the toughest council estates in Manchester in the 80s and 90s to the owner of a multimillion pound company employing nearly 200 people globally. Stewart has done alright.
Stewart is one of the original founders of World Options and the brains and designer for the architecture of the World Options online shipping portal.
“I started my career as a sales representative working for a number of high profile companies before moving into a sales role within the shipping industry. After a few years I joined forces with my business partner at the time, Andrew Jackson, and we created World Options.
At the beginning when we first started, we rented a small office and the whole company consisted of five people, including myself, squeezed into one room. I was out there every day, rain or shine, knocking on doors, looking for businesses that required shipping services so we could help them with their shipping needs. It was tough but I was driven and worked 24/7. I was constantly thinking of ways to improve the service we provided our customers. I became very IT focused, learning systems because I knew that was the way to make World Options the best it could be.
There isn’t much I’ve not shipped in my time. I was once asked to ship a special red carpet to a customer in the UAE for a VIP event. There was only one supplier of this red carpet in the whole world and they were based in the UK. Nobody else would accept the challenge and the client was literally begging me to help him. I was offered a substantial amount to make this happen in a very short space of time. So, what else could I do… I chartered a private jet to get this red carpet to Dubai. It was extremely challenging and involved lots of negotiating to get the shipment to its destination, but we got the job done much to the delight of one very happy customer. The customer was so impressed he became a loyal shipping customer of ours for many years after that.
Sometimes you have to think outside of the box and rise to the challenge, only then will you really know what you are truly capable of.”
- Qualifications: CIM - Chartered Institute of Marketing
- Experience: 25 Years
- Director of World Options Since: Day one… 2002
- Outgoing, technical and driven