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Charles Dunstone

Dunstone joined the controversy over the Big Brother racism row in January by withdrawing Carphone Warehouse’s £3m sponsorship of the TV show. The move came as the group announced it had 2.2m broadband customers, making it the third largest player in the market following its £370m takeover of AOL’s UK business. This was good news for Dunstone, 42, Carphone Warehouse chairman and co-founder with David Ross (qv) of Europe’s largest mobile phone retailer. His stake is worth £860m. He sold £56.3m worth of shares at a float in 2000 and another £10m in 2005.