Charles Dunstone

Sir Charles William Dunstone ( ; born 21 November 1964

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 home phone 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 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. 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.

Strike Dunstone is a major backer of discount online estate agency Strike.

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 was made a Knight Bachelor 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 (CVO) for his work with The Prince's Trust.

Personal life Dunstone established a charitable trust, which is the main sponsor of the Fulwood Academy school in Preston, Lancashire.

In November 2013, the Prime Minister appointed Dunstone to the board of trustees of Royal Museums Greenwich. Dunstone was reappointed in 2017 but resigned in February 2021 before the end of his second term. He has donated to both the Labour and Conservative parties.

Dunstone is considered a member of the Chipping Norton set. His hobbies include sailing, and he is the owner of the classic racing yacht Blitzen and the classic motor yacht Shemara.

Family Dunstone is married to Celia Gordon Shute, a public relations consultant. The couple has three children.

Footnotes