Timothy Randall Martin (born 28 April 1955) is an English businessman and the founder and chairman of Wetherspoons, a pub chain in the UK and Ireland. In 2016, Martin actively campaigned for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union and was a strong supporter of Brexit, donating £200,000 to the Vote Leave campaign. Early life Timothy Martin was born on 28 April 1955 in Norwich. His father served in the Royal Air Force and then worked for brewing multinational Guinness plc, where he became Malaysian marketing director. He has a brother, Trevor. Martin was educated at eleven schools in New Zealand and Northern Ireland, including Campbell College, Belfast, and the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. He earned a bachelor's degree in law from the University of Nottingham, and qualified as a barrister in 1979, but has never practised. Career His early jobs included working on a building site in Ware, and acting as a sales representative for The Times. Martin is the founder and chairman of Wetherspoon. He bought his first pub, in Muswell Hill, in 1979 which was originally named Martin’s Free House before renaming to Wetherspoons, named after one of Martin's teachers who stated he would never be a success. His brother Gerry also ran a pub chain, Old Monk, which was listed in 1998, but went out of business in 2002. After the initial opening of Martins first location, the organisation kept growing and expanding as Wetherspoons started opening more locations throughout the north of London, and eventually across the whole UK. In 1992 Wetherspoons was listed on the Stock Exchange as JD Wetherspoon plc. In 1998, Martin kept expanding the companies operations and opened 20 locations in one month in July, with seven opening on the same day. In 2000, under Martins leadership, Wetherspoons opened its 400th location and by 2008 the number had increased to 800 Wetherspoons locations. In 2005, Martin was voted the fifth most influential person in the UK pub industry. He is an admirer of Sam Walton's business philosophy. He visits at least 15 Wetherspoons outlets each week. As of February 2023, Martin owned 30.77m shares (23.90% of shares). In January 2022, the Wetherspoons pub chain closed 10 pubs across the UK with 35 more up for sale, Martin stated that pubs across the UK are being crippled via unfair taxes in comparison to supermarkets. Martin went on to state that he