Meet the Team

Simon Paine has been involved in starting and testing about 30 business ideas over the last 25 years.

Business was not on his radar at all until he realised he needed to leave his (successful) career because he wasn’t happy. At 29, he realised there was a big world to explore, he had LOADS of ideas, and he wanted to have a go at starting something.

His first business was a “dotcom” selling share certificates online (which mostly failed). The second was a web design company (it made some money, that business became successful later, but with very little to do with him). He then freelanced as a consultant before seeing an opportunity. He loved helping people NOT make the same mistakes he made when starting a business, so he started coaching start-ups.

In 2008, the Government hired him to coach people who were starting from a place of disadvantage. He realised it needed a different approach, which became the precursor to Rebel. He then met Alan Donegan, and together they created the Rebel Business School in 2012. It has since grown to support thousands of people in 11 countries, create jobs, and win awards from the Queen and King of the UK.

He still runs his own coaching practice as a side hustle.

Simon spent ten years as a police officer and the next ten experimenting with business, the music industry and occasionally a proper job. He set up a centre for entrepreneurship, ran a regional enterprise service for Business Link before heading-up client services for a leadership consultancy. Simon started Rebel with Alan in 2011.

He has coached, trained and facilitated senior leaders from some of the world’s most famous companies including Microsoft, British Airways, and Thomson Reuters.

Outside of Rebel he is the frontman of a band, makes art, drinks coffee from the Yemen and cooks up new ideas – which includes being the founder of forever27.co.uk. Also as a Dad of three boys he watches a lot of sport, operates an unlicensed parent taxi service and avoids DIY.

Henry Nicholson had never run a business before he encountered Rebel…

Through school and college, he never quite got along with the traditional way of doing things. In his early career, he found himself butting heads with managers and the rules of traditional employment, especially in his web design career. He started experimenting with his own projects, helping the people around him, doing everything from design work to building projects.

He found Alan, Simon, and the Rebel Business School. They showed him how to look at the world differently and where his value could be. So, as he joined Rebel, he went self-employed too.

Over the years, he tried a multitude of things. He launched a clothing brand, One Planet Apparel, opened his own web design agency supporting medium-sized businesses, launched a community, and even a brewery. Some failed, some he still does, and some he just didn’t like as much as he thought he would.

Fast-forward to the present, he took over as CEO of Rebel in 2023; this became his full-time business project. Sales, finance, people, delivery, you name it.

He always knew he didn’t fit into traditional employment. Now he is leading one of the best challenger education companies in the UK.

He still makes beer… more of that coming up.

Simon spent ten years as a police officer and the next ten experimenting with business, the music industry and occasionally a proper job. He set up a centre for entrepreneurship, ran a regional enterprise service for Business Link before heading-up client services for a leadership consultancy. Simon started Rebel with Alan in 2011.

He has coached, trained and facilitated senior leaders from some of the world’s most famous companies including Microsoft, British Airways, and Thomson Reuters.

Outside of Rebel he is the frontman of a band, makes art, drinks coffee from the Yemen and cooks up new ideas – which includes being the founder of forever27.co.uk. Also as a Dad of three boys he watches a lot of sport, operates an unlicensed parent taxi service and avoids DIY.

Simon spent ten years as a police officer and the next ten experimenting with business, the music industry and occasionally a proper job. He set up a centre for entrepreneurship, ran a regional enterprise service for Business Link before heading-up client services for a leadership consultancy. Simon started Rebel with Alan in 2011.

He has coached, trained and facilitated senior leaders from some of the world’s most famous companies including Microsoft, British Airways, and Thomson Reuters.

Outside of Rebel he is the frontman of a band, makes art, drinks coffee from the Yemen and cooks up new ideas – which includes being the founder of forever27.co.uk. Also as a Dad of three boys he watches a lot of sport, operates an unlicensed parent taxi service and avoids DIY.

Simon spent ten years as a police officer and the next ten experimenting with business, the music industry and occasionally a proper job. He set up a centre for entrepreneurship, ran a regional enterprise service for Business Link before heading-up client services for a leadership consultancy. Simon started Rebel with Alan in 2011.

He has coached, trained and facilitated senior leaders from some of the world’s most famous companies including Microsoft, British Airways, and Thomson Reuters.

Outside of Rebel he is the frontman of a band, makes art, drinks coffee from the Yemen and cooks up new ideas – which includes being the founder of forever27.co.uk. Also as a Dad of three boys he watches a lot of sport, operates an unlicensed parent taxi service and avoids DIY.

Simon spent ten years as a police officer and the next ten experimenting with business, the music industry and occasionally a proper job. He set up a centre for entrepreneurship, ran a regional enterprise service for Business Link before heading-up client services for a leadership consultancy. Simon started Rebel with Alan in 2011.

He has coached, trained and facilitated senior leaders from some of the world’s most famous companies including Microsoft, British Airways, and Thomson Reuters.

Outside of Rebel he is the frontman of a band, makes art, drinks coffee from the Yemen and cooks up new ideas – which includes being the founder of forever27.co.uk. Also as a Dad of three boys he watches a lot of sport, operates an unlicensed parent taxi service and avoids DIY.

Simon spent ten years as a police officer and the next ten experimenting with business, the music industry and occasionally a proper job. He set up a centre for entrepreneurship, ran a regional enterprise service for Business Link before heading-up client services for a leadership consultancy. Simon started Rebel with Alan in 2011.

He has coached, trained and facilitated senior leaders from some of the world’s most famous companies including Microsoft, British Airways, and Thomson Reuters.

Outside of Rebel he is the frontman of a band, makes art, drinks coffee from the Yemen and cooks up new ideas – which includes being the founder of forever27.co.uk. Also as a Dad of three boys he watches a lot of sport, operates an unlicensed parent taxi service and avoids DIY.