JOHN CAUDWELL
@johndcaudwell
PRESS RELEASE
February 19, 2013.
JOHN CAUDWELL HELPS BRING THE
GIVING PLEDGE TO EUROPE .
Entrepreneur and
philanthropist John Caudwell is amongst a handful of high-net-worth individuals
to bring the life-changing Giving Pledge (www.thegivingpledge.org) to Europe .
John, who sold his
telecommunications business for £1.5 billion in 2006, joins the likes of Bill
Gates and Warren Buffett in pledging to donate significant tranches of their
wealth to philanthropy - and collectively changing the lives of many
generations to come.
"The Giving Pledge is
a simple principle, a pledge for extremely wealthy people to give away the
majority of their wealth during - or after - their lifetime to charitable
causes," said John Caudwell.
"The collective worth
of those committing to The Giving Pledge is hundreds of billions of dollars.
That sort of resource can help countless millions of people.
"It is in the culture
of north Americans to adopt such an
approach - that's where The Giving Pledge started and thrived - but I contacted
Bill Gates about trying to drive such an approach in the UK and Europe ,
and this is our breakthrough.
"I've already discovered
the pleasure of giving my wealth to worthy and charitable causes that genuinely
make a difference to the lives of the least fortunate. Those of us who have yet
to find philanthropy may find there is a far greater reward from it than from
wealth creation.
"I will give away at
least half my wealth during my lifetime and after my death. In the meantime
I'll continue to grow my wealth as much as possible so that the amount I
bequeath to charities and worthy causes can be as substantial as
possible."
In 2006, John Caudwell sold his 10,000-employee mobile
phone business, which included Phones 4u, for £1.5bn. John now concentrates on
charitable and philanthropic work including Caudwell Children @caudwellkids.
@johndcaudwell
Ends
Further information:
Iain Macauley
07788 978800
www.caudwell.com
www.caudwellchildren.com
www.thegivingpledge.org
