Charles Dunstone

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.

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

Non-executive director of HBOS PLC. HBOS is the holding company for Halifax plc and the Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland.In 2005 Dunstone's fee was £56,000.

The Daily Mail General Trust

non-executive director of the Daily Mail and General Trust.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 2011IMD is a leading global 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 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.

Get Connected

Sir Charles served as chairman from 2005 – 2012 Get ConnectedGet Connected is the free, confidential national helpline service supporting vulnerable young people under 25 all over the UK, and helps with any issue they might be facing, 365 days a year. They have a team of 100 expertly trained non-judgmental Helpline Volunteers who provide emotional support and information. They can then connect young people to any one of 10,000 trusted organisations for further support and advice, completely free of charge.In May 2014, Get Connected announced that through the support of Sir Charles and as the Carphone Warehouse's charity partner together they had helped a landmark figure of over 500,000 young people in crisis. Together Carphone Warehouse & Get Connected are set to help 1,000,000 children and young people by 2017.

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.