Charles Dunstone
Introduction
Sir Charles William Dunstone, CVO (born 21 November 1964) is the co-founder and former chairman of mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse, chairman of multinational electrical and telecommunications retailer and services company Dixons Carphone (formed on 7 August 2014 by the merger of Dixons Retail and Carphone Warehouse), and chairman of the TalkTalk Group.
Early life
Dunstone was born in 1964, in the town of Saffron Walden in Essex. Dunstone was educated at Uppingham School, an independent school for boys (now co-educational), in the market town of Uppingham in Rutland, in Central England. Dunstone's father was an executive at BP.
Business
Carphone Warehouse
Charles Dunstone first began selling mobile phones out of his flat on Marylebone Road in 1989. He was 25 years old and had £6,000 of savings to start his business, having previously worked at NEC as a sales executive.
It was whilst working at NEC that he first spotted the potential of mobile phones and the future of mobile communications. At that time, handsets were large, cumbersome and mainly purchased by big business and large organisations. Corporate clients were well catered for but small businesses, the self-employed and general public had nowhere to go. Dunstone realised that mobile phones would eventually become ubiquitous and named his company The Carphone Warehouse (CPW) to serve this larger market.
In July 2000 the company floated on the London Stock Exchange and based on an Issue price of 200p, the company was valued at approximately £1.7 billion.
In May 2008, Best Buy, an American multinational consumer electronics corporation, and CPW agreed to create a new company, Best Buy Europe. Best Buy acquired 50% of CPW's European and US retail interests for a cash consideration of £1.1 billion or $2.1 billion. The assets of the newly formed company comprise CPW's existing retail business, operating from more than 2,400 stores in nine European countries under CPW and Phone House brands. These include the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
CPW is today the world's largest independent mobile communications retailer.
In 2005 Dunstone's salary and bonus came to £689,000. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 he was listed in 64th place, with an estimated fortune of £830 million.
Dunstone employed the controversial ex-convict Ernest Saunders as a business consultant for Carphone Warehouse prior to its flotation.
HBOS
The Daily Mail General Trust
Independent Media Distribution PLC (now trading as Group IMD)
The Prince's Trust
Get Connected
Qualifications
Dunstone has 3 A-levels, grades B,C & D. He abandoned his business degree at Liverpool University after taking a gap-year with Torch Computers in Cambridge and then with NEC.
Honours and awards
In 2005 Dunstone was awarded The Daily Telegraph's Business Person of the Year.
He made a Knight Bachelor in the 2012 Birthday Honours 'for services to the mobile communications industry and to charity'. In the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) for his work with The Prince's Trust.
Personal life
Dunstone has established a charitable trust, which is the main sponsor of the Fulwood Academy school in Preston, Lancashire.
He was also an early supporter of the Technology Trust, and has been an ambassador for the Blue Marine Foundation since 2005.
Dunstone is married to Celia Gordon Shute, a public relations consultant.
Dunstone is considered a member of the Chipping Norton set. His hobbies include sailing.
He has supported both the Labour Party & the Conservatives. On 26 April 2015, he published an opinion piece in The Daily Mail encouraging the public to vote for the Conservatives on the basis that they were better for the economy.