Ed Stubbs

Originally from Sheffield, Ed Stubbs is a graduate of the University of Nottingham Business School.

He was hired as a graduate trainee in Chicago by Gripple – a manufacturing company within the GLIDE Group (HQ in Sheffield) – specialising in joining, tensioning and suspension solutions in Building Services, Infrastructure and Agriculture. Ed was then appointed Managing Director of the start-up Loadhog – a returnable packaging company also within the GLIDE group – age 25. He was then appointed Manging Director of Gripple Ltd at age 32 and in 2023 Group Managing Director.

Gripple has a large Innovation and Research Centre and seven smart factories in Sheffield, with total manufacturing locations in 14 countries and the group employing over 1,500 employee owners. GLIDE is a multi award-winning group of companies which all stand for and operate as Growth led Innovation Driven Employee Owned companies, a corporate philosophy that Ed supports and advocates for at both national and international levels.

Ed has advised and currently serves as a main board director on the Employee Ownership Association. Over the last 20 years, he has acquired extensive experience of working internationally with diverse companies in the private sector and diverse organisations in the public sector. He shares common goals and aspirations with the EO Sector, the “Growth and Beyond Growth” new economic and social agenda as well as on Climate Positive initiatives in scope 1-3 and scope 4, all of which entail rethinking and adapting corporate structures (managerial, administrative, and financial), adopting new indicators of success, encouraging, and supporting employee engagement and accepting wider civil responsibilities. Essential to achieving these ends is the role of Management and Business Schools. Accordingly, Ed has worked closely with Sheffield University Management School in the areas of graduate recruitment and, executive teaching, and research on employee ownership.

The Management School has a clear sense of purpose and direction – to ensure that all of its students have a successful career. This is both a responsibility and a promise. To be invited to be part of a talented team that works together to facilitate such an end is demanding, challenging and rewarding. And as such exciting!

Ed Stubbs

Group Managing Director, Gripple Ltd