Obituary: Charles Brady

Charles Brady, chief executive of Wilmington plc from 1999 to 2015, died peacefully in hospital on 17 August after a long illness.

Charles was born in 1956. He became a solicitor and law lecturer, and with his friend and fellow solicitor, Steve Broome, spotted a fantastic business opportunity. The Law Society required every solicitor to attend compulsory continuing professional development in the form of attending a specified number of hours of study each year. They set up Central Law Training, which offered half-price training if the law firm paid an annual subscription. This in effect locked the firm into buying CLT courses as well as producing a regular subscription income. Charlie and Steve used to tease each other as to which of them first had the idea.

Wilmington plc bought CLT for a substantial sum and Charlie converted from being a straightforward solicitor to a true entrepreneur. Shortly after the move into the plc, the role of CEO became vacant and Charlie got the job. His first acquisition was of Bond Solon Training and La Touche in Dublin. I had known Charlie for some time as we were both in the legal training market; CLT International providing training for lawyers and Bond Solon law for non-lawyers. During his time at Wilmington, Charlie was involved in the acquisition, disposal and creation of many companies, including CLT Scotland, CLT International, Mercia Group, HSJ, Axco Insurance Information and the International Compliance Association.

Charles was thought of in the City as a safe pair of hands and the plc consistently declared healthy dividends. He is listed at Companies House as having being a company director of some 40 companies. The Times described him as a 'business big shot' in 2010.

He decided to resign on a high in 2015 and Pedro Ros was appointed in his place, followed by our current CEO, Mark Milner. He continued his involvement with the world of commerce and helped mentor new businesses as a regional judge in the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year UK 2021 Awards. He was a non-executive director at 4imprint plc, a FTSE 250 company. Even though he had been very ill over the past 18 months, he still remained engaged and even emailed Piers Lawson, the MD of Bond Solon, a few weeks ago with some business ideas.

Charlie was a keen golfer and in the CLT’s heyday held annual executive planning days in a Spanish golf resort. He lived in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, and enjoyed staying at Browns hotel when working in London. He loved business and even when on holiday, kept in close contact with the Plc. He said he got bored otherwise. He was a season ticket holder at Aston Villa and enjoyed talking football.

Charlie was a modest man but loved the thrill of doing business, meeting to do deals and watching as ideas developed into reality.

Mark Solon is chairman of Wilmington Legal and founder of Bond Solon