Endorsements from Business Entrepreneurs

Sir Tom Hunter

Tom Hunter is now one of Scotland's richest men and a philanthropist.

Tom built Sports Division from nothing into one of the UK's premier sports retailers over an 18-year period. He started the business after originally selling sports shoes from the back of his car. Tom's success is legendary; from the car boot, he moved to selling via concessions in other peoples' stores. His real success came when he started to open his own stores. He used "every last penny in his pocket" when he bought Olympus, a company seven times the size of his own. Tom sold Sports Division to JJB Sports in 1998 for £290 million; his stake in the business was valued at £260 million.

Tom and his wife Marion established The Hunter Foundation in 1998, a venture philanthropy targeting investment in education and enterprise across Scotland. He is passionate about making Scotland a more enterprising nation and since 1998 Tom has donated £100m from his personal fortune to Scottish schools, in an unprecedented bid to give the nation a "can do" culture.

In March 2001, Tom founded West Coast Capital, the private equity partnership which has since concluded in excess of £ 2.5 billion deals. Within the investment portfolio, he now oversees a number of retail and property boards, providing strategic and corporate direction to the management teams.

Tom is a previous Entrepreneur of the Year winner and is an ardent supporter of fellow entrepreneurs. He is past Chairman of the Entrepreneurial Exchange and personally gave £5m to support the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at Strathclyde University.

Tom was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of June 2005.
 

Read more about Sir Tom by visiting the website www.westcoastcapital.co.uk.

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