Charles Dunstone

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

He 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.

In December 2019, Dunstone purchased £10 million worth of shares in TalkTalk, meaning he now owns 29.5% of the company's stock.

Carphone Warehouse boss knighted

Charles Dunstone, founder and chairman of the Carphone Warehouse Group, has been knighted in the Queen's birthday honours list.

Carphone Warehouse boss knighted

Charles Dunstone, founder and chairman of the Carphone Warehouse Group, has been knighted in the Queen's birthday honours list.

Carphone Warehouse boss knighted

Charles Dunstone, founder and chairman of the Carphone Warehouse Group, has been knighted in the Queen's birthday honours list.