Meet some of our people
Charlie Osmond, CEO Before co-founding FreshMinds, Charlie worked for Unilever where he designed a common set of IT processes for the firms’ 3,000 IT staff. However this was a world away from his entrepreneurial beginnings. Whilst at school, before he was out of shorts, Charlie started setting up micro-businesses. He set up in competition with his school tuck shop and established an importation company specialising in Italian toys.
In honour of his entrepreneurial efforts, Charlie was named by Growing Business magazine as one of the UK's "Next Generation of Entrepreneurs". In 2003 he was named London Entrepreneur of the Year and The Carlton Young Business Person of the Year.
Charlie works with a number of charities to promote entrepreneurialism amongst young people and has acted as a special advisor to various government departments on this topic. In his spare time, he competes as part of the FreshMinds sailing team (currently ranked 37 in the world) and is a member of the Serpentine Swimming Club. Charlie holds a MEng in Engineering, Economics and Management from Oxford University.
Caroline Plumb, CEO Caroline Plumb is CEO of FreshMinds, the research and recruitment businesses she founded with Charlie Osmond in September 2000 straight after graduating from university.
Always keen to set an entrepreneurial example, Caroline is a regular speaker on business, innovation and enterprise, including speaking alongside Bill Gates and Sir Terry Leahy at Gordon Brown’s Enterprise Conference and the Institute of Director’s Annual Convention. She was also twice-named on Management Today’s annual list of ’35 under 35’ businesswomen, the youngest on the list both times.
Caroline is on the board of the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship and the business advisory forum for the Saïd Business School, Oxford. She was born in Manchester and has a first-class degree in Engineering, Economics and Management from St. John’s College, Oxford.
Outside of work she loves travelling, eating out and dreaming up new business ideas.
David Verey, Special Advisor David joined the FreshMinds team as a Special Advisor in 2004. He also holds the position of Senior Advisor at The Blackstone Group International and was named Chairman of The Blackstone Group UK in January 2004. For most of his career, David was at Lazard Brothers & Co. Limited, working initially in the asset management division before transferring to the corporate finance division. During his time there, he rose from Deputy Chief Executive in 1985 to Chief Executive in 1990 before being appointed Chairman in 1992.
David attended Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge where he completed a MA in English. David is a non-executive Director of The Daily Mail and General Trust plc, Gutmann Bank AG, Sofina SA, Chairman of the National Art Collections Fund, a Fellow of Eton and a member of the Finance Committee of Trinity College, Cambridge. In June 2004, David received a CBE from Her Majesty the Queen.
Paul Perkin, Chairman Paul has been closely involved with FreshMinds ever since the company was founded in 2000. In 2006, he joined the board as Chairman.
After spending several years in consultancy and management positions within various multi-nationals, Paul spent the majority of his career working for RM plc, a leading supplier of IT solutions to the education sector. He joined shortly after the company’s inception in 1979 and helped grow the company to a turnover of £120m in his roles as Operations Director and Managing Director of its service business.
Upon leaving RM, Paul advised and invested in a number of new businesses. He also worked as a Consultant to the Department for Education and Skills where he helped establish Labour’s national literacy and numeracy strategies in schools across the UK. Paul holds a first-class degree in Physics from UCL, and has also completed the Harvard International Senior Managers’ Programme.