SPOTLIGHT: Meet Julian Hall - Banker to Ultrapreneur

Read about Julian's journey from School, Banker to now the founder of Ultra.Education

This week’s DiveIn Spotlight is with Julian Hall. Julian went from working in Investment Banking to being the Founder & CEO of Ultra Education.

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Julian’s journey is one of ambition and determination. He grew up in Harlesdon, London where he attended John Keble Primary School after being homeschooled for the first two years before he started primary school. He was, as his teachers described him, always ahead of the class. Towards the end of primary school, his teachers suggested to his mother that he has the potential to do the eleven plus exams. After some tuition, Julian went on to sit the Latymer Upper Independent school entrance exams and successfully achieved an academic scholarship to attend.

At Latymer Upper (A boys school at the time) Julian was one of three black boys at the school. There were a group of children from ethnic backgrounds from the Brent area that attended as well. He says that he “did not feel any different, he just got on with it as he knew he had done well academically and he felt like he belonged.”

After his time at Latymer, Julian went on to attend the University of Greenwich to study Applied Biology, however, after two years he realised that he was chasing the wrong dream, so at aged 18, Julian set up his first business with some friends from his one bedroom flat in Stonebridge – a fashion company. After some time, this came to an end, and Julian started working as a Computer Engineer.

He was later headhunted to work at an investment bank, where his career took off. He still, however, had the entrepreneurship bug. During 2003-2006 after the dot com bust, he bought a domain and taught himself Google marketing whilst working. He set up an SEO company and worked during the evenings and weekends on his business, and found that eventually, he was matching his banking salary.

In 2007, Julian raised some investment and left his day job with his colleague and set up a web development, training and workshop agency in Shoreditch. They were the first black only urban digital agency in Europe at the time. They certainly stuck out in Shoreditch, and people wondered how they were successful. The business world started to notice them and they were then invited to talk to the public about their story to Schools, Colleges and Universities.

It was in 2010 that Julian realised a gap in the market for teaching Entrepreneurship in Schools and this was the start of Ultra Education.

Ultra Education has gone from strength to strength since its inception. It is a social enterprise teaching entrepreneurship to children aged 7-18. Their mission is to inspire positive and lasting change in the lives of young people...focused on those from underrepresented communities. Their core values support equality, diversity and the capacity for the human capability to go beyond expectations. You can find more information on Julian here: https://julianhall.co.uk/ https://ultra.education/