From building not one but two successful pizza businesses straight out of university to taking a company from a startup to a leader in the alternative feed ingredients space, windsurfer and Veramis CEO Karim Kurmaly has packed much into his life since his student days in the 1980s.

Back then, struggling to find work in marine science -- then an area with few opportunities -- he opened a family pizza business in north London, later launching a second outlet in the capital in the 1980s in the early days before Dominos Pizza invaded the United Kingdom.