Doctor of the University
A pioneer in the shaving business, recognised for his services to engineering and entrepreneurship.
Born August 1965, Will King studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Portsmouth from 1984 to 1987, before setting out on a career in advertising, sales, marketing and corporate event management in London.
Following redundancy in 1993, aged 26 he created the King of Shaves brand and its first product, a revolutionary shaving oil. Buying shave.com for £18 in 1995, Will soon discovered that ‘shaving’ is a growth business.
King of Shaves announced an environmental focus in 2019, launching the Code Zero® project to minimise the impact of the brand’s plastic packaging on the environment. 2021 saw the launch of above & beyond®, a new durable, lifetime-use refillable brand and micro-plastic free packaging platform through Integro Innovations Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of King of Shaves.
In 2023, King of Shaves celebrated its 30th anniversary, with more than 17 billion lives ‘shaved’ world-wide, with Will returning as the company’s CEO to mark the milestone.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Portsmouth in 2015 for services to engineering and entrepreneurship, and is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Suffolk.