David Ross (businessman)

David Ross
Born	1965 (age 58–59) Grimsby
Occupation(s)	accountant co-founder Carphone Warehouse
Spouse(s)	ex-partner Shelley Ross, 1xson

David Ross (born 1965 in Grimsby), is an English businessman, co-founder with school friend Charles Dunstone of The Carphone Warehouse. At peak valuation of his business interests, Ross was one of the 100 richest people in the United Kingdom, with a presently estimated net worth of £900M.

Biography

Ross is the grandson of John Carl Ross, who created one of the UK's largest commercial fishing firms from the family business, and two listed companies: Ross Frozen Foods which he created; and purchase of the Great Grimsby Coal, Salt and Tanning Company (known as Cosalt), which was founded in 1873 as a cooperative that sold all the supplies needed to run a fishing fleet, listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1971.

Born in Grimsby but raised in Leicestershire, Ross maintains links with Grimsby through funding of local school the Havelock Academy, which was set up in 2007 with help from his charitable foundation. Ross himself was educated at Uppingham School, where he met and befriended Charles Dunstone; and then studied law at Nottingham University.

His grandfather taught him never to do business with somebody you wouldn't be willing to entertain in your own own home; while at the age of 16, his Cosalt-chairman father sent him to work on a building site in Algeria, which he later described as a defining moment "because it was so bad I knew I had to get away from it and be able to control my destiny."

Career

On graduation from Nottingham University, Ross joined Arthur Andersen and became a Chartered Accountant.

Carphone Warehouse

Main article: The Carphone Warehouse

In 1989, Ross agreed to join Dunstone, who was ploughing £6,000 of his savings into a business selling mobile phones. They formed Carphone Warehouse, in a flat on the Marylebone Road, London which four years later had grown to 20 stores. Now also trading as The Phone House, Carphone Warehouse is Europe's largest independent mobile phone retailer.

While Dunstone became the public face of carphone, Ross (described by Dunstone as his "secret weapon"), developed and drove the high street retail footprint of the company by buying Tandy in the UK, and developing the The Phone House across Europe and the United States. When Ross lead the IPO of Carphone Warehouse in 2000, it had been so successful that the partners had not needed to borrow or involve outsiders: Dunstone owned half, Ross a third, and business partner Guy Johnson most of the rest.

While Ross had been joint-Chief Operating Officer with Dunstone from 1990 and 2003, where as Dunstone stayed with the business that he still runs today, Ross started to give up his executive position from 2003. Ross became deputy chairman in July 2005, and by 2008 was a non-executive director.

In June 2008 he sold shares valued at £33million to the company's employee trust. In December 2008 Ross resigned from the company when it was found that he had illegally not declared placing the majority of his remaining 19.4% stake in the plc company (177million shares total holding), in guarantee of various person loans.

Commercial property

In 2006, Ross set-up a commercial property joint venture with investment bank Morgan Stanley, into which he injected his private property portfolio, Kandahar Real Estate Ltd, worth £243 million. The venture took an additional £100million funding from the Royal Bank of Scotland.

It is with regards the value of these properties that is understood Ross placed various share holdings in guarantee from March 2006 onwards (including: Carphone Warehouse - 136.4million shares out of a holding of 177million; Big Yellow - 11.5million; and National Express), The company specialises in investing in retail and leisure assets, including a shopping centre in Plymouth – a type of asset which has slumped in the 2008 Credit Crunch – and in 2007 Kandahar completed an additional £460m refinancing with HBOS.

In audit in late 2008 by the banks providing the loans, it is reported that his undeclared and resultantly illegal share guarantee under London Stock Exchange regulations managed by the FSA - which require as a director of a plc to tell the shareholders of that company - which forced his resignation from Carphone Warehouse.

Other business activities

Ross is currently chairman of National Express, and directorships of: storage company Big Yellow; chairman of family founded ship supply group Cosalt (a job he took over from his father); publishing and newspaper group Trinity Mirror; ITIS and Intrinsic Value. Ross was formerly a director of Frontiers Capital.

Ross, who has a strong personal interest in sport, was also on the board of the reconstruction of Wembley Stadium; and was part of the consortium which rescued Leicester City Football Club from receivership, before it was later sold to Milan Mandarić. Ross presently serves on the board of the English Sports Council.

Politics

Ross is a supporter of the Conservative Party, and with leader David Cameron is known to enjoy trips to various football matches. Ross presently serves as a member of the Home Office audit committee.

After Boris Johnson was elected Mayor of London, in May 2008 Ross was Johnson's nominee to the board of the London Organising Committee of the 2012 Olympic Games.

Arts

Ross holds a developing interest in the arts, having been appointed to the board of the National Portrait Gallery by Tony Blair in 2006; and in the summer hosts the Grange Park Opera at Neville Holt, which involves his friend Wasfi Kani.

Personal life

Single, Ross has a son with former ballerina and model Michelle "Shelley" Ross, who worked as a part time lap dancer at Stringfellows night club. The pair met on a flight to the Isle of Man, and have a son Carl Cosmo Thomas Ross. Ross has also been linked to Ali Cockayne, the ex-wife of former England rugby union captain Will Carling; and society journalist and model Saffron Aldrige. Ross is presently dating Emma Pilkington, whom he took to a party hosted by Prince William on Mustique in summer 2008 on Talitha G, a super-yacht owned by the Getty family.

Ross owns the 1,500-acre Manor Farm estate Brampton Ash in Northamptonshire. After the murder of his step-sister Fiona Marshall and her boyfriend Richard Flippance at the property in 2006 by her ex-husband Alex, in 2008 Ross placed the property on the market for £7.75 million. Ross's main residence is the 700-year-old Nevill Holt estate in Leicestershire, which he bought in 2000. He also has homes in London's Kensington, the Caribbean island of Mustique; and is resident for taxation purposes in Switzerland.

Ross enjoys game shooting, and in 2007 bought 4,500 hectares of prime grouse moor in Yorkshire for £22m.

External links

• Carphone Warehouse - Board of Directors