Sir Charles William Dunstone (born 21 November 1964) is the British co-founder and former chairman of mobile phone retailer

Carphone Warehouse The Carphone Warehouse Limited was a mobile phone retailer based in London, United Kingdom. In August 2014 the company became a subsidiary of Currys plc (previously named "Dixons Carphone"), which was formed by the merger of its former parent Ca ...

, former chairman of multinational electrical and telecommunications retailer and services company

Dixons Carphone Currys plc, formerly Dixons Carphone plc, is a British multinational electrical and telecommunications retailer and services company headquartered in London, England. It was formed on 7 August 2014 by the merger of Dixons Retail and Carphon ...

(formed on 7 August 2014 by the merger of

Dixons Retail Dixons Retail plc was one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in Europe. In the United Kingdom, the company operated Currys, Currys Digital, PC World (retailer), PC World (with stores increasingly dual branded 'Currys PC World'), Dixo ...

and

), and executive chairman of the

TalkTalk Group TalkTalk Telecom Group plc (commonly known as TalkTalk Group, trading as TalkTalk) is a company which provides pay television and Internet access services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 2003 as a subsidiary ...

Early life

Dunstone was born in 1964, in the town of

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The population was 15, ...

in Essex. Dunstone was educated at

Uppingham School Uppingham School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils 13-18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oakham School. The headma ...

, an independent school for boys (now co-educational), in the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

Uppingham Uppingham is a market town in Rutland, England, off the A47 between Leicester and Peterborough, south of the county town, Oakham. It had a population of 4,745 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 4,853 in 2019. It is known for its ...

in Rutland, in Central England. Dunstone's father was an executive at BP.

Business

Carphone Warehouse

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 is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

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 2003 Carphone Warehouse established a subsidiary TalkTalk, from the assets acquired through the purchase of Opal Telecom in 2002. TalkTalk provided homephone and broadband into the UK market. TalkTalk aggressive pricing was disruptive to the market and grew its customer base rapidly. Growth was also through acquisition, purchasing one.tel, AOL, Tele2 and lastly the Tiscali ISP businesses in the UK, this led to the demerger of TalkTalk as a separate business in March 2010. In December 2019, Dunstone purchased £10 million worth of shares in TalkTalk, meaning he now owns 29.5% of the company's stock. 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 became the world's largest independent mobile communications retailer, but may now have lost this position. 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 Ernest Walter Saunders (born 21 October 1935) is a British former business manager. He became known in the UK as one of the " Guinness Four", a group of businessmen who attempted fraudulently to manipulate the share price of the Guinness compa ...

as a business consultant for Carphone Warehouse prior to its flotation.

HBOS

Non-executive director A non-executive director (abbreviated to non-exec, NED or NXD), independent director or external director is a member of the board of directors of a corporation, such as a company, cooperative or non-government organization, but not a member of th ...

HBOS HBOS plc was a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Ba ...

PLC.

is the holding company for Halifax plc and the Governor and Company of the

Bank of Scotland The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial and clearing bank based in Scotland and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group, following the Bank of Scotland's implosion in 2008. The bank was established by th ...

. :In 2005 Dunstone's fee was £56,000.

The Daily Mail General Trust

:non-executive director of the

Daily Mail and General Trust Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) is a British multinational media company, the owner of the '' Daily Mail'' and several other titles. The 4th Viscount Rothermere is the chairman and controlling shareholder of the company. The head office i ...

. :DMGT is one of the largest media companies in the UK and has interests around the world in national and regional newspapers, television, radio, exhibitions and information publishing. :In 2005 Dunstone's fee was £34,000.

Independent Media Distribution PLC (now trading as Group IMD)

:non-executive director of Independent Media Distribution PLC between January 2002 - May 2011 :IMD is a distributor of TV & radio advertising and for the television and music industries. Clients include ITV, MTV, L'Oreal and BSkyB. :In 2005 Dunstone's fee was £20,000.

The Prince's Trust

:Council Member of

The Prince's Trust The Prince's Trust ( cy, Ymddiriedolaeth y Tywysog) is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11-to-30-year-olds who are u ...

and former Chairman of its trading subsidiary, the Prince's Trust Trading Ltd. :The Prince's Trust is a Registered Charity (in England) No 1079675. The Prince's Trust Trading Limited (a company registered in England No 3161821) is a wholly owned subsidiary and trades on behalf of The Prince's Trust. In their 2006 annual report, The Prince's Trust had a gross income of £56.8m and an expenditure of £40.8m.

Qualifications

Dunstone has 3

A-levels The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational au ...

, grades B,C & D. He abandoned his business degree at

Liverpool University , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

after taking a gap-year with Torch Computers in Cambridge and then with

Honours and awards

In 2005 Dunstone was awarded ''The Daily Telegraph's Business Person of the Year.'' He was made a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are th ...

in the 2012 Queen's Birthday Honours List 'for services to the mobile communications industry and to charity'. In the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours List, he was appointed

Commander of the Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, o ...

(CVO) for his work with

Personal life

Dunstone has established a charitable trust, which is the main sponsor of the Fulwood Academy school in

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston local government district. Preston and its surrounding distri ...

. In November 2013, the Prime Minister appointed Dunstone to the Board of Trustees of

Royal Museums Greenwich Royal Museums Greenwich is an organisation comprising four museums in Greenwich, east London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just un ...

. Dunstone was reappointed in 2017 but resigned in February 2021 before the end of his second term. 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, and he is the owner of the classic motor yacht ''Shemara''. He has donated to both the Labour Party the and Conservative Party.The best connected man in business: Carphone Warehouse billionaire Charles Dunstone on Cameron, congestion and karma , London Life , Lifestyle , London Evening Standard
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Footnotes

References

Carphone Warehouse – Board of Directors
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunstone, Charles 1964 births Businesspeople awarded knighthoods Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order Conservative Party (UK) people Daily Mail and General Trust English businesspeople Knights Bachelor Labour Party (UK) people Living people People educated at Uppingham School People from Saffron Walden TalkTalk Group people