- Octavius Black
-
Octavius Orlando Irvine Casati Black (born 1968) is the CEO of The Mind Gym. He is close to prime minister David Cameron. Black is married to the libel barrister and Tory candidate Joanne Cash.[1]
Contents
Early life
Black was born 2 May 1968 in West London. He was the son of advertising executive Brinsley Black, named as one of the best-dressed Englishmen in the inaugural issue of Men in Vogue in 1965,[2] and his second wife, Lady Moorea Hastings (born 4 March 1928). She was the daughter of the Labour Peer and academic Francis Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon (1901–1990), and Cristina Casati Stampa di Soncino (1901–1953), the only child of Camillo, Marquis Casati Stampa di Soncino (1877-1946) and Italian heiress and eccentric patroness of the arts Luisa Casati (1881–1957). Through his mother's earlier marriage to politician and diarist Woodrow Wyatt, Black has one older half-brother, The Hon. Pericles Plantagenet James Casati Wyatt (born 1963), an owner and operator of water parks and recreational-vehicle camps in Arizona;[3][4][5] Pericles is in turn half-brother to journalist Petronella Wyatt. Moorea Hastings was so unmaternal that, on learning she was pregnant, she arranged with her first husband that childless cousins of his would care for the baby. When Wyatt later sued for divorce on grounds of her adultery, he was, unusually, given full custody of the child.[6]
Black was privately educated at Colet Court, the prep school that forms part of St Paul's, together with Ed Vaizey, now a Tory cabinet minister. Black went on to Eton College at the same time as David Cameron,[7] before studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at The Queen's College, Oxford,[8] also alongside Cameron.[9]
Personal life
In the summer of 2007, Black proposed to Joanne Cash, an Oxford-educated barrister, at Terminal 1 of London Heathrow Airport,.[10][11] Their wedding blessing in 2008 was attended by a number of nationally prominent Conservatives, including Michael Gove, who delivered the main speech.
The couple live in Notting Hill, in the Westminster North constituency.[12] (See Notting Hill Set for other young Tories.) They have a baby daughter.
Business career
Upon graduating from university, he joined Booz Allen Hamilton as a business analyst, where he worked predominantly in the Financial Services practice.
Black was brought into AGB Research by Mark Booth to help turn around this market research business, owned by Robert Maxwell. After the disappearance of Maxwell the business went into administration.[13]
Black joined Smythe, Dorward Lambert as their sixth employee. Black became the Sales and Marketing Director of the leading employee communication consultancy of its time with 100 employees and a turnover of £10 million. The consultancy was sold to Omnicom in 1996.[14]
Black led major programmes with clients including RBS, BP, McKinsey, Barclays, Zurich, InterCity and Sizewell B.
Black has worked as a journalist on both sides of the Atlantic.[8]
Black is a patron of the Campaign for Learning . He is also on the Advisory Board of Teaching Leaders.[15]
Mind Gym
Black started at his kitchen table in 2000. The organisation aims to "improve a company’s performance by changing the way employees think". He co-founded the business, which has made him an authority on employee-related business issues.[16] The Mind Gym has been, independently, evaluated and endorsed by the BBC.
Black has also co-written three Mind Gym books (The Mind Gym: Wake Your Mind Up, The Mind Gym: Give Me Time, The Mind Gym: Relationships).[17]
The Mind Gym: Wake Your Mind Up reached number two on amazon.co.uk and was translated into 27 languages.[17] ‘Success without the sweat…of practical use at work.’ Financial Times.
Black considers himself a business authority, frequently commenting on BBC, Sky[18] and in the press on the human aspects of business, including topics such as attracting and retaining talent, increasing productivity without spending and moving from the public to private sector.
Black's Mind Gym also gives out the largest prize in Europe for original psychology research [19]
The Mind Gym ran its first workshop in September 2000 with Deutsche Bank.[20] It has since been adopted by over 40% of FTSE 100 as well as many other global organisations, including British Gas RBS, BP, O2, Accenture, Unilever, Pfizer, Cisco and Sainsbury's.[21]
The Mind Gym’s technique is based on rigorous but bite-size psychology. It was the first organization to deliver learning in 90-minute workshops that claim to have the same impact as a traditional full-day course.
A BBC independent evaluation, comparing one of The Mind Gym’s 90-minute sessions with a BBC one-day and a two day training course (all on influencing), found the Mind Gym's session to outperform its own. The programme has also been endorsed by the Financial Times.[22]
Black's Parent Programme, The Parent Gym, claims to be the UK's most robustly evaluated programme. Pilot's in early 2010 showed after 3 months, improvements in parenting capability, children's behaviour and a reduction in discipline problems.[23] Boris Johnson, has shown interest in rolling out the scheme across London.[24]
External links
References
- ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/4550142/David-Cameron-finds-new-guru.html
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
- ^ "To Move and To Shake" by Geraldine Bedell. The Independent on Sunday, 24 November 1996.
- ^ [5]
- ^ a b http://www.themindgym.com/about/leadership
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8670046.stm
- ^ Kay, Richard (29 June 2009). "Joanne gets her man in a million; Engaged: Joanne Cash". Daily Mail.
- ^ Joanne gets her man in a million; Engaged: Joanne Cash FreeLibrary (From Daily Mail, 29 June 2007)
- ^ Oakeshott, Isabel; Oliver, Jonathan (26 July 2009). "Young, gifted and Tory". The Sunday Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6727624.ece.
- ^ http://www.agbnielsen.net/aboutus/history_agb.asp
- ^ http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/96266/Acquisition-motives-behind-Omnicom-rsquos-latest-buy---Omnicom-its-chequebook-again-time-buy-Fleishman-Hillard-move-mirrors-approach-taken-building-its-advertising-agency-networks/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH
- ^ http://www.teachingleaders.org.uk/supporters,39.html
- ^ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/752af806-a3eb-11df-9e3a-00144feabdc0.html
- ^ a b http://www.themindgym.com/books/
- ^ http://www.themindgym.com/about/press/
- ^ http://www.themindgym.com/about/
- ^ http://www.themindgym.com/about/history
- ^ http://www.themindgym.com/solutions
- ^ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/96ee648c-d172-11df-96d1-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11478042
- ^ 8 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/borisjohnson/8055169/The-road-to-a-university-place-must-begin-when-a-child-is-five.html
Categories:- Living people
- 1968 births
- English chief executives
- Old Etonians
- Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford
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