Founder Wheeldon leaves ALS
ENTREPRENEUR Gavin Wheeldon is quitting Applied Language Solutions, the translation business he founded and sold to outsourcing giant Capita late last year.
Mr Wheeldon, landed £7.5m upfront from the deal just before Christmas 2011 and stood to earn a further £60m over the next four years if ALS – which holds a key Ministry of Justice contract – achieves certain financial goals.
His departure from ALS was agreed last week with Capita and is said to be amicable.
He told TheBusinessDesk.com: “I am more at home running a smaller enterprise, and when you have run something yourself it’s very hard to become part of the big corporate machine.”
He has bought 50% and become non-executive chairman of Inta Food Group, a small Manchester-based business offering cooking courses.
“I was given one of their vouchers for Christmas and I started looking at the business and spoke to the founder about growing it. I am very excited about the prospects.”
Mr Wheeldon said the hardest part of leaving ALS, was leaving “the great people” in his team behind.
“There are some brilliant people there, and that’s the saddest thing about leaving because you build some really strong relationships with them.
“I’ll be needing some good people in the future – and you never forget the good people you’ve worked with.”
He said his earn-out with Capita still stands – although he will not be responsible for its delivery.
“There’s nothing to say that at some stage we don’t agree and early pay out,” he added.
In a statement Capital said: “It has been mutually agreed that Gavin Wheeldon will now step down as a director and leave the company to pursue other interests.
“Gavin’s entrepreneurial spirit has been a strong driving force behind the successful development of ALS to date and the business is now entering an exciting new stage of development within Capita.”
A Capita spokesperson added: “We thank Gavin for helping to integrate ALS into Capita and wish him well with his new business initiatives.”
