John David Caudwell, born in 1952, is an English billionaire businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. After abandoning his A-levels, he worked as an engineering foreman at Michelin while also running a corner shop and a mail order clothing business.
In 1987, Caudwell registered Midland Mobile Phones, which would later become Phones 4u. The company initially struggled, making a loss for the first two years of operations after taking eight months to sell its first 26 mobile phones.