Charles is an investor in PrimaTrade Systems Limited and, through Worthy Ventures, is an active adviser to the founder on both strategic and operational matters. PrimaTrade and ES3G are the successor companies to PrimaDollar, in which Charles was also an investor.PrimaTrade is a technology-driven business. Its payables automation and supplier finance platform enables mid-sized and larger corporate buyers to manage cash flow to their global supply chains, leading to significant savings of up to 1% or more on landed costs. The platform allows buyers to pay their international suppliers at shipment without letters of credit or complexity. Exporting suppliers are paid upfront but buyers pay later.

Charles is an investor in ES3G Limited and, through Worthy Ventures, is an active adviser to the founder on both strategic and operational matters. ES3G and PrimaTrade are the successor companies to PrimaDollar, in which Charles was also an investor.ES3G’s mobile app pulls data directly from workers on conditions in their workplaces around the world – in real time, all the time, for all the workers. This enables corporate buyers to meet their obligations to monitor human rights and worker conditions in their supply chains. The solution is low-cost, simple, global and scalable - for factories, farms, mines, offices – for any kind of supplier in any location.

Worthy Ventures was a vehicle through which Charles provided consultancy services to growing businesses and pursued a variety of entrepreneurial projects.In providing these services and pursuing these projects, Charles drew on his wide-ranging experience and detailed technical knowledge acquired over four decades working in the finance and investment sectors and as an entrepreneur.

Charles was an investor in Canopy and, through Worthy Ventures, was an active adviser to the two co-founders on both strategic and operational matters.Canopy engineered an innovative greenhouse design which used only seawater, not fresh water, for both irrigation and climate control. Canopy planned to deploy these greenhouses to create leverageable agricultural revenue streams by growing high quality fruit and vegetables, cost-efficiently, on arid coastland close to high priced markets in food insecure regions around the world.

Charles was an investor in Dposits and, through Worthy Ventures, was an active adviser to the founder on both strategic and operational matters.Dposits sought to finance the tenancy deposits of people renting private residential property. Its compelling and simple solution addressed a significant problem in a major sector of the UK housing market.

Verdesta Energy was established alongside Pinder Fry & Benjamin to exploit funding and development opportunities within the cleantech and renewable energy sectors.Specific opportunities were identified and secured commercially in the biogas, materials recycling and peak power generation sub-sectors. Early stage finance for a large scale biogas plant in eastern Germany was obtained through an innovative Enterprise Investment Scheme funding for which Charles devised tax relief eligible quasi-preference shares.Additionally, extensive technical and commercial research was undertaken into opportunities in UK hydro power, UK solar power, gasification, combined heat and power and biofuel.

Pinder Fry & Benjamin was a specialist promoter and manager of retail investment funds, latterly mainly in the commercial property sector.Its 15 commercial property funds invested in over £800 million of assets and included funds holding individual properties valued from around £20 million to over £200 million. Other funds included partnerships which financed over £700 million of films.The firm distributed its products to high net worth investors, principally through financial advisers and wealth managers.The firm also designed a number of innovative savings and investment products for other distributors. For example, Charles devised and developed, from hedging and pricing to marketing, the first UK house price index linked savings product, securing substantial and heavily sub-LIBOR funding for a major building society.The firm, which was authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, closed to new investment in 2009.

Charles was responsible for the product management of the group’s savings and investment offerings sold under the Abbey National brand. The savings products amounted to about £45 billion of liability.Other key responsibilities included marketing strategy, interest margin management for savings products, product portfolio management and new product development (with a particular focus on structured products).

Charles was appointed to identify, develop creatively and exploit opportunities to use the knowledge and expertise of Abbey National’s wholesale banking department both within its very large UK retail business and elsewhere in the group.Charles' work thus mostly comprised product development, for all areas of the group; in particular, designing and helping to develop retail products (including structured products) for the core UK onshore business.Other product development work included the design and launch of retail products for the group’s offshore operations in Jersey and Gibraltar; product development advice for the French, Italian and Spanish subsidiaries; and the design of personal loan products for the group’s specialist lender.

Johnson Fry designed and developed numerous innovative investment products and services for the upper end of the UK retail financial services market. Often these products and services had a significant tax angle.Charles was responsible for the development of a derivatives-based Business Expansion Scheme company structure and other investment vehicles based around a variety of asset types.