Gavin Wheeldon (born 12 May 1976) is a British businessman and entrepreneur from the Manchester area who is best known for his appearances on the reality television shows Dragon's Den and Secret Millionaire; and a controversial contract his former company, Applied Language Solutions (ALS), signed with the United Kingdom's Ministry of Justice. After selling it to Capita, he founded Purple WiFi, a company to provide free WiFi platform to the businesses for customer relationship management.
Applied Language Solutions
Wheeldon founded ALS in 2003. In 2007, Wheeldon appeared on the British version of Dragons' Den offering 4% of the company in return for £250,000 investment. None of the Dragons backed him.
Ministry of Justice Controversy
In 2011, the company signed a lucrative contract with the UK's Ministry of Justice to provide court interpreters across England and Wales. Wheeldon later admitted that ALS was ill-prepared to meet the obligations of the agreement. Registered police and court interpreters were unhappy about the ministry's decision to use ALS, in addition to the much lower pay offered by the company, and over 1,000 of them protested the decision. The majority of them refused to work for ALS, leading to questions in Parliament as to whether the contract was viable. During the first quarter of the contract, ALS faced 2,232 complaints. Some poorly-prepared interpreters were accused of creating "courtroom chaos" that led to cases and proceedings being delayed or collapsing entirely because they failed to show up on time or were deemed incompetent.
Sale to Capita
Wheeldon sold his company, Applied Language Solutions, to Capita plc in December 2011 for £7.5 - £67.5 million dependant on target. He remained the CEO of the business for six months. The company was rebranded Capita Translation and Interpreting.
Other Work
In 2009, Wheeldon appeared in an episode of The Secret Millionaire on Channel 4, where he visited North Wales and observed and subsequently invested in a number of community projects.
In January 2010, the Oldham Council set up the Business Leadership Group, of which Wheeldon is a member. The group is composed of 14 local business owners who advise the Oldham Council and local regeneration body Oldham Partnership on economic and other policy matters.
Purple WiFi
In May 2012, after leaving ALS, Wheeldon set up an internet business named So Purple Group Limited. So Purple was established through the acquisition and merger of five established companies and provides a number of services for the retail and leisure industry. The company offers a free WiFi platform for businesses to surveil their customer's shopping patterns and habits, and communicate through their social IDs with these clients through targeted messaging. In May 2013, So Purple sold its Broadband division for £800,000 to Coms to focus on Wifi. Until 2015, Purple was funded by Wheeldon, before receiving its first outside funding of $5 million from Terry Leahy, Bill Currie, Iain MacDonald, Bob Willett and Juno Capital.
Awards
- Director of the Year at 2007 The Institute of Directors awards.
- In April 2010, Gavin Wheeldon's business, Applied Language Solutions, was awarded The Queen's Award for Enterprise.
- In 2011, Wheeldon was the joint winner of the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award at EN Magazine's northwest awards.
- Businessman of the Year at 2012 The One Oldham Business Awards.
Personal life
Wheeldon currently lives in Uppermill, Oldham with his wife and two daughters.
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