Personal — Kurtis Lipman

At work

How I show up professionally.

I operate with a lot of ownership. Whatever room I'm in, I'm always looking for ways to contribute beyond what the role says on paper. I care deeply about the people around me, and I get more satisfaction from seeing the people I work with win than I do from my own wins.

I'll always tell you what I actually think. The people I've worked with tend to come back to me for a straight answer, and that's probably the thing I'm most proud of professionally.

Outside work

Quick Fire Round.

The book you'd force everyone to read?

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Changed how I think about almost everything.

Go to fancy dress?

Anything with a cowboy hat. No further questions.

Karaoke song?

Suspicious Minds by Elvis, or Against All Odds by Phil Collins. Depends on the crowd.

If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life?

Pizza. No hesitation.

Best piece of advice you've ever been given?

Nothing's ever as important as you think it is.

This year's big challenge

Tallinn Marathon, September 2026.

I ran a lot in my twenties, but trouble with my knees meant I had to take a break for a while. I've spent the last couple of years working back to fitness, and this September I'm running my first marathon in Tallinn.

The Battersea Half Marathon in July came in at 1:40:57, four minutes inside my stretch target and eight weeks out from race day. The target for Tallinn is sub-3:45, with sub-3:30 as the stretch.

— days to the Tallinn Marathon

Follow the training on Strava →

Football and mental health

Mates FC.

A few years ago I helped start a Sunday League football club affiliated with a mental health charity called MATES. The idea was simple: no commitment, no toxicity, just football as a reason to get out of the house and be around people who look out for each other.

I captained the club for five years, sat on the committee, and helped build it from scratch into a team that won Division 1 of the Mid-Essex League and got promoted to the top division in the area. It's one of the things I'm most proud of, and it had nothing to do with work.

Find out more about Mates FC →

A few other things

What else keeps me busy.

🏉

Tag rugby

Play regularly in London. Good way to stay active and spend time with people who aren't also staring at laptops.

🎬

Video editing

Self-taught. Got competent enough that a previous employer's marketing team brought me in to produce internal videos for the wider team.

🎲

Dungeons and Dragons

I write original one-shot adventures and run sessions for a regular group. Mostly improvisation and keeping six people focused for a few hours.

📚

Reading

Always two books on the go: one fiction, one non-fiction. Can't seem to manage just one at a time.

🧠

Pub quizzes

More competitive about this than is probably reasonable.

🤖

AI and new tools

Use it every day across my work. Not as a novelty, just as a practical part of how I operate. Always trying out what's next.

Who I am.