David Ross, the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse who was engulfed in a share disclosure scandal last year, has taken his first step back into the public markets after his reappointment as chairman of Cosalt.
Mr Ross stood down in the wake of the revelation last December that he had used shares he owned in Carphone Warehouse, National Express, Big Yellow and Cosalt as security against personal loans without informing his fellow board members. A hastily drafted statement from Carphone Warehouse triggered a domino effect of resignations. Mr Ross quit five jobs in as many days, including a high-profile role advising Boris Johnson on the 2012 Olympics. Mr Ross was cleared of any wrongdoing in January by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) but has kept a low profile since.
Of all the positions he had to cede during the FSA investigation, the chairmanship of Cosalt may have stung the most, given that his ties to the Grimsby-based marine safety company go far beyond his 15 per cent stake. His predecessors in the role were his father and grandfather. His grandfather, John Carl Ross, bought the Great Grimsby Coal, Salt and Tanning Company after building the family fishing firm into one of Britain’s largest fishing businesses and merging with Young’s in 1959. The company was renamed Cosalt before it listed in 1971. Mr Ross had maintained his board position at Cosalt and has now stepped back into the chairman’s role after David Hobdey’s decision to step down.
Of the share scandal, Mr Ross said in a recent interview with The Times: “I was made a bit of a scapegoat. Lots of people were doing the same. But the media furore was around me.”
He accepts that his lifestyle may have exacerbated the scandal. Although his profile in the City was overshadowed by that of Charles Dunstone, with whom he co-founded Carphone Warehouse, his private life was known for a relationship with Saffron Aldridge, the former Ralph Lauren model, and grouse shooting parties at his Nevill Holt estate with Gary Lineker and Sir Richard Branson.
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The Conservative Party donor maintains his links with Grimsby via the Havelock Academy, which he established in 2007 on the site of a failing comprehensive school. Mr Ross, who attended Uppingham school — a public school said to have the largest playing fields in Britain and where he met Mr Dunstone — hopes that the academy will become a blueprint for other such projects.