Martin Chilcott (born 12 December 1965) is a British entrepreneur specializing in environment and education, best known as the founder and CEO of 2degrees, the world’s largest community for

sustainable business A sustainable business, or a green business, is an enterprise that has minimal negative impact or potentially a positive effect on the global or local Natural environment, environment, community, society, or economy—a business that strives to m ...

. His first successful business venture was CTSS, a specialist technology marketing company, with colleague and friend James Tarin. In 1995, he established Clarity Communications, followed by various companies that included Meltwater Ventures, a green business incubation service.

Early life

Chilcott was born in

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, the son of Rosemary and Lt-Col Michael John-Patrick Chilcott. Chilcott was educated at St Josephs College, Ipswich before going on to study History at

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refound ...

Career

In 1989, Chilcott started CTSS, a specialist technology marketing consultancy, with his current business partner, James Tarin. Their main client for 5 years was a small start-up business called The

Carphone Warehouse The Carphone Warehouse Limited was a mobile phone retailer based in London, United Kingdom. In August 2014 the company became a subsidiary of Currys plc (previously named "Dixons Carphone"), which was formed by the merger of its former parent Ca ...

, which would grow into Europe’s largest independent mobile phone retailer. As a result of its success, Chilcott’s business moved to London and in 1995 founded Clarity IBD Ltd, an

e-business Electronic business (or "Online Business" or "e-business") is any kind of business or commercial transaction that includes sharing information across the internet. Commerce constitutes the exchange of products and services between businesses, grou ...

consultancy that would work with Abbey National and

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...

to create online content. This was later acquired by Proxicom, another

consultancy. After various further business ventures Chilcott co-founded Place Group, an educational consultancy company, in 2005. He would spend the next few years working alongside local authorities and national government programs until, by 2008, they were the market leader in delivering school-academy transitions in the UK. A year after the founding of Place Group, Chilcott started a business incubator called Meltwater Ventures that specialized in environmental programs and resource scarcity. Meltwater Ventures would eventually generate the idea for 2degrees.

2degrees

By 2006, Chilcott had been drawn to sustainability and carbon reduction, having seen the opportunity build on a valuable business niche there. He, along with James Tarin, recognized that many business were attempting to solve similar sustainability problems independent of each other, but that and that there was no online community which could be used to connect them and collectively solve problems. This thinking led to the founding of the 2degrees Community in 2008 and, by 2011, it was the world largest Community for Sustainable Business and had offices in the UK and US.

Personal life

Martin Chilcott currently lives in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and currently spends his time between his family, his business, and maintaining his Dutch barge. He is also a trustee of

Oxford business x Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

, a youth enterprise scheme based at the Said Business School in Oxford. In 2011, he sat on the panel of judges for

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

's Sustainable Business Awards 2011.https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/judges-martin-chilcott

References

External links

* New Business interview with Martin Chilcot

* 2degrees Networ

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chilcott, Martin British businesspeople Living people 1965 births People educated at St Joseph's College, Ipswich