David Ross (businessman)
| David Ross | |
|---|---|
| Born |
David Peter John Ross 10 July 1965 |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Uppingham School |
| Alma mater | University of Nottingham |
| Occupation | Chartered accountant, co-founder of Carphone Warehouse |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Net worth | £1.0 billion (April 2015) |
| Children | Carl Ross. Born 2004 |
| Relatives | Carl Ross (grandfather) |
| Website | http://www.davidpeterjohnross.com/ |
David Peter John Ross (born 10 July 1965) is an English businessman and one of the co-founders (with Charles Dunstone and Guy Johnson) of Carphone Warehouse. At the peak valuation of his business interests in 2008, Ross was one of the 100 richest people in the United Kingdom. In 2008, Forbes ranked him #843 in the world's richest billionaires; his net worth was estimated at US$1.4 billion. In April 2015, the Sunday Times estimated his net worth at £1.0 billion
Ross was born on 10 July 1965. He is a grandson of Carl Ross, who created one of the UK's largest commercial fishing firms from the family business, which eventually became Ross Group, and took over the Great Grimsby Coal, Salt and Tanning Company (known as Cosalt), which was founded in 1873 as a cooperative that supplied fishing fleets. Both businesses were listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Ross was educated at Uppingham School. At the age of 16, his father sent him to work on a building site in Algeria, which he later described: "It was a defining moment because it was so bad I had to get away from it and be able to control my destiny". He graduated with a BA degree in law from the University of Nottingham and worked at Arthur Andersen from 1988, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1991.
Ross had become friends with Charles Dunstone while at Uppingham. Dunstone went on to found Carphone Warehouse from a flat in Marylebone Road, London, using £6000 of his savings. Two years later, he asked Ross to join the business as finance director. Four years later, the business had twenty stores and thereafter continued to grow rapidly through a process of both acquisition and internal development.
While Dunstone became the public face of Carphone Warehouse, 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 markets in Europe and the United States. The business also expanded into other telecommunications areas, establishing the TalkTalk ISP in 2003 and taking over other providers such as AOL. When Ross assisted the IPO of Carphone Warehouse in 2000, the company had been so successful that the partners had not needed to borrow or involve outsiders: Dunstone owned half, Ross a third, and Guy Johnson most of the rest.
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