Carter & Carter CEO Confirmed Dead

“

Carter & Carter CEO Phillip Carter has been confirmed dead following a helicopter crash on Tuesday night. Three others including Mr Carter’s 17 year old son Andrew were also killed in the crash.

His company Carter & Carter Group released a statement saying “Our thoughts and condolences are with Phillip’s wife Judith, daughter Natalya and the family and friends of all those involved in this tragic accident.

“Phil was a great friend, a strong family man, and will be deeply and sadly missed by all those who knew him.”

Carter and Carter, which is based in Nottinghamshire and employs over 500 people, was founded by Mr Carter in 1992 initially as a service provider in the automotive repair industry but in 1997 moved into the training sector winning the Audi Academy contract in Britain. Four years later the venture capital firm Bridgepoint took a 47 per cent stake in the business, offering opportunities for expansion. In 2003 Carter bought Emtec, the apprenticeship learning group which provides training for people in the car-dealing industry, effectively doubling the size of his own company.

Two years later Carter & Carter bought the AA technical training services business, followed by Assa Training & Learning (paying £24m); the second of these acquisitions enabled it to increase its share of the government-funded vocational learning market by moving into areas such as food manufacturing and engineering. In February last year the Fern Group (which provides training for the unemployed and disabled) was added to the list of acquisitions for £13.6m. In addition last year ReMIT (provider of apprenticeships in the motor retail industry) was bought for £25.5 million and in December 2006 the training divisions of Quantica (£12m), NTP (£7.9m) and IMS (UK) (£3.5m) were acquired.

Carter and Carter had recently reported pre-tax profits up 25% to £3.8m and Phillip Carter had last week appeared on the Sunday Times Rich List at 770th.

The success of Mr Carter and his company in the learning and training sector was recently recognised when he was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year

Tributes have been coming in from all sectors of the industry. Aidan Relf, speaking on behalf of the ALP said “We are shocked and saddened to hear of his death. Carter and Carter make an excellent contribution to the debate on Govt policy of training through learning providers and we hope this will continue despite this sad loss”

Rodney Westhead, Carter & Carters non-executive chairman, will assume the responsibilities of group chief executive on an interim basis