Jo Bamford

After graduating from college, Bamford went to work as a fund manager at New Star Asset Management in London. Around 2002, his family invested £4 million into New Star.[5] A fellow employee leaked to the press that Bamford had failed his IMC exam, which is a requirement to work as a fund manager. According to an IMC spokesman, “The exam is a benchmark of basic investment competence. It’s multiple-choice and really isn’t that testing for those who have properly prepared.”[6]

In 2002, Bamford announced that he was moving to Shanghai because he was “sick and tired” of the media attention he received as a billionaire heir.[7] When he left his job at New Star, a colleague sarcastically told the press, “Joe will be sorely missed. Not only was he amusing company he was also superb at playing Solitaire on his computer. He was inspiration at it.”[8]

Following his time as a fund manager, Bamford returned to JCB after spending short periods working there as a teenager while he was studying. His first role was as a product specialist for the skid-steer loader at JCB’s North American headquarters in Savannah, Georgia. Beginning in 2004, Bamford was Managing Director of the subsidiary, JCB Utility Products. According to Construction News, Bamford "broadened the appeal of the company’s utility product range to new industry sectors" while in the position. This included the launch of the JCB Workmax. In October 2011, Bamford was given an additional role as managing director of JCB Compact Products. The combined turnover of both businesses at the time was in excess of £150 million.[9]

In 2011, Bamford partly funded the purchase of a 500 acre former BAE Systems-owned Woodford Aerodrome.[10] Many different plans were touted for the site,[11] a large section of the site was earmarked for housing, with developer Redrow plc some of the site.[12] One former aerodrome building was converted to an aviation museum, Avro Heritage Museum.[13] Bamford was promoted in 2014 to Head of Major Contracts at JCB. He remained part of the senior management team at JCB until 2016, a year in which the company celebrated Joseph Bamford's centenary year with a bronze bust at the JCB headquarters.[14]

After working at JCB for over a decade, Bamford moved his focus to green energy. He formed Ryze in 2017, which aimed to create the UK's first network of hydrogen production plants.[15] To advance hydrogen projects, Bamford started HYCAP, a hydrogen investment fund. He raised more than £200m in its first investment round. He is also the owner of Oxford-based Ryse Hydrogen Ltd,[16] which produces hydrogen to fuel up his hydrogen-powered buses. Bamford said that his family provided half of the initial round of investment into HYCAP.[17] The Irish Times has called him a "hydrogen evangelist";[3] he is an advocate for the adoption of hydrogen energy in transportation.

Since starting Ryse Hydrogen in 2019, Bamford has lobbied the UK government in favour of hydrogen-technology adoption. After “sustained lobbying” from Bamford, the Secretary of State for Transport announced a programme to convert public transportation in towns into all-electric hydrogen buses. According to Passenger Transport, Grant Shapps was “very, very keen that we push hydrogen” after meeting with Bamford about it.[18]

In 2019, Bamford purchased the previously financially troubled Northern Irish bus manufacturer Wrightbus, the company that produces London's double-decker red buses.[19] After Bamford bought Wrightbus, the company became the first manufacturer of fuel cell double-decker buses.[20]

In September 2019, Wrightbus was placed into administration, with the loss of 1,200 jobs. In that position, the company faced immediate liquidation unless a buyer could be found.[21]

During negotiations of Bamford’s purchase of Wrightbus, Bamford and Jeff Wright, the owner of Wrightbus, publicly wrangled. At issue were whether the deal would include the business itself, the factories, and land owned by the Wright family. There was much local publicity and a public movement to save the company. In fact, Wrightbus factory workers encouraged the owners to include their land in the agreement as a way to ensure completion of negotiations in order to save their jobs.[22][23][21]

During the negotiations, Wright publicly accused Bamford of being “disingenuous.” Wright's public statement:[22]

“The failure by Mr. Bamford’s Ryse Hydrogen company to complete the deal to purchase Wrightbus is deeply regrettable, particularly in light of the especially after the exhaustive efforts all of us involved have gone to in providing every possible support. It is disingenuous of Mr. Bamford or his associates to suggest that there were any barriers created by my family through our land holdings. . . . While Although each and every one of the bidders agreed terms, Mr. Bamford also sought to gain unrelated additional farmlands owned by my family.”

Wright also spotlighted the role that MP Ian Paisley played in the process, complaining about Paisley’s interference, calling his efforts a “vote campaigning exercise.”[22] He fired a warning shot at Paisley, saying, “Until we establish his motivation and have this position explained he would be well advised to leave the business of deal making to the professionals at Deloittes.”[22]

On 11 October 2019 Bamford publicly announced that the deal was done. In his statement, he praised Paisley “for his hard work and diligence in helping to mediate what has at times been a tricky negotiation.”[23]

On 12 October 2019 Paisley wrote an op-ed in the Belfast Telegraph where he praised Bamford and thanked him for buying Wrightbus.[24]

In early 2021, Wrightbus posted a pre-tax profit of £900k. It had £71.8m in sales for the 15 months to December 2020.[16]

His two companies won a ten-year contract from Transport for London to convert 20 buses to run on hydrogen.[25]

In 2019, Paisley asked Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Conservative MP Julian Richard Smith to use economic assistance to encourage more bus buyers to buy “more British-made buses.” A year later, Smith began to receive payments from Bamford’s hydrogen company Ryse Ltd., which produces hydrogen for use in hydrogen-powered British-made Wrightbus buses, which totaled over £75,000, according to the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. The payments from Bamford’s hydrogen company were documented as being for “work as an external adviser on business development.”[26][27]

In January 2020, Bamford was quoted as saying that Wrightbus “had been helped by politicians including” Smith and Paisley.[28]