Chief executive, Asos

Asos is continuing to define online fashion and as its business in the UK having reached critical mass, Robertson is setting his sights firmly on international markets to continue its impressive growth story. He is now aiming for sales of £1bn from five overseas markets.

As well as country-specific websites rolling out this year, Asos will also launch a marketplace where customers and smaller retailers will be able to sell goods to each other, similar to the offers of Amazon and eBay.

Robertson has built an infrastructure and scale that would be hard for rivals to equal. It is a leader in building a community around its brand online and is having to constantly extend its office space to house the new employees joining each month to cope with the company’s growth.

Robertson now wants to really push the message of the brand to a wider audience with increased marketing activity such as TV sponsorships and an outdoor campaign to cement its position in the customers mind.

Speculation is often rife over whether Robertson would want to exit the online empire he has built, but he laughs off such talk and says that he is having “too much fun” at the top to leave any time in the near future.