After leaving school without any A Levels, Alex tried the insurance industry, but it wasn't for him and in 1989 he took a full time barman's job at the Fox Revived public house in a lovely village near Gatwick Airport. Within 4 months he was the youngest Landlord in the UK, running a staff of 30 and serving over 1500 meals and 5000 pints a week. After nearly three years, a 'regular' offered him a job selling corporate hospitality at Thomas Cook. That was before he joined a production company, Expertease International, again setting up a hospitality business. In 2000, Alex decided to set up his own events company, joined by colleagues and co-founders, Jo Greenstock & Simon Hanbury. AOK Events quickly became a well-known event management company with a number of big name clients across every sector. After taking on Mike Kershaw & Giles Toosey as Non Exec Directors, between 2011 and 2018 AOK Events acquired three well established businesses ' Cavendish Consulting (corporate hospitality), We Find Venues (venue finding) and Melon (parties and live events) helping them become one of the largest privately owned event companies in the UK. AOK Events currently employees 40 staff with offices in Clapham Junction and Exeter. In November 2023, AOK Events shareholders sold 65% of their shares to AOK Events' staff through an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). Last year they were also ranked the 19th best company to work for in the UK (50 employees and under), the only company in the hospitality sector.