Jonathan Kendrick

Jonathan Kendrick is the Co-founder and Chairman of the ROKiT Group of Companies. As a serial entrepreneur, Jonathan began his business career through securing the European rights to then-unknown Yokohama tires brand (which, having successfully brought to market, he sold back to Yokohama).

During the mid 90’s Jonathan continued to work in the tire business and brought the unknown, Indonesian tire brand, Gajah Tunggal to the UK, turning it into one of the leading retailers. Later that decade, Jonathan started to work in the telecoms business, developing an innovative system for British Telecom to sell pre-paid vouchers electronically, and eventually sold the company in 1998. During this time he continued to support his passion for football by running a football financing company, and supporting a selection of League One football teams.

Recognizing, early on, the enormous potential of the mobile industry, Jonathan founded ROK to create the technology to simplify the process of pre-paid vouchers for mobile phones. Jonathan sold ROK’s electronic voucher technology to a leading mobile industry player in 2002, while still retaining the ROK brand – which he re-launched with co-founder, fellow entrepreneur, John Paul DeJoria, founder of Paul Mitchell line of hair products and Patron Tequila.

Over the next decade Jonathan began to focus on the telecommunications world by providing mobile television to network providers around the world. In 2007 Jonathan streamed the world’s first live music concert over mass-market 2.5G via GPRS to mobile and was streamed across a 4 hour period, live and exclusive, to mobile operator AIS’s ROK TV service. Due to the success in Thailand it led to the formation of ROK TV. ROK TV deployed in over 50 countries by 2013. Partners included China mobile, AIS Thailand, Telenor in Pakistan, American Movil in Latin America, Celcom in Malaysia, and the world’s first free tv mobile service offered globally called Freebe tv.

In 2018, Jonathan and John-Paul created ROKiT, a people-first telecoms company selling a selection of value-driven mobile handsets, paired with vital-life services such as telemedicine and roadside assistance as well as smart phones featuring glasses-free 3D screens. In Fall of 2018, came the introduction of ROKiT Cities, a wide area mesh networking WiFi XL service to help connect some of the poorest communities around the world, starting with 27 of the largest cities in India.

Jonathan has a portfolio of drink brands within ROKiT Group. These include ABK Beer brewed in the 700-year-old Bavarian brewery and a small-batch, hand crafted artisan spirits brand called Bogart’s Spirits created in partnership with the Humphrey Bogart estate, and Bandero a premium 100% blue agave tequila. In addition to his extensive success as a entrepreneur, Jonathan is an accomplished film producer. Most recently as the Executive Producer for “Wonders of the Sea” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 2019 Jonathan won his first Gold and Silver Telly Awards. Jonathan also has a record label, comic book business, natural spring water company and multiple investments in games companies, crypto currency and emerging technology.