Octavius Black

British businessman

Octavius Orlando Irvine Casati Black CBE (born 2 May 1968[1]) is a British businessman and founder of the company The Mind Gym.

## Early life[edit]

Black is the son of socialite Brinsley Black (1930–2011)[2][3] and his second wife, Lady Moorea Wyatt (née Hastings) (1928–2011), who was the daughter of the Labour peer and academic Francis Hastings (1901–1990), and Cristina Casati Stampa di Soncino (1901–1953). Black's grandmother Cristina was the only child of Camillo, Marquis Casati Stampa di Soncino (1877–1946) and Italian heiress and eccentric patroness of the arts Luisa Casati (1881–1957).[4]

Through his mother's earlier marriage to politician and diarist Woodrow Wyatt, Black has one older half-brother, Pericles Plantagenet Wyatt (born 1963).[5] Through his father, Black has a half-sister, Eliza-Jane.[2]

## Business career[edit]

After graduating from university, Black joined management consultants Booz Allen Hamilton as a business analyst, before joining the Robert Maxwell-owned AGB Research market research business. After the disappearance of Maxwell the business went into administration.[6]

Black joined employee communication consultancy Smythe, Dorward Lambert as their sixth staff member, going on to become sales and marketing director before it was sold to Omnicom in 1996.[7]

Between 2012 and 2014, Black wrote an occasional column in the business section of The Sunday Telegraph on the human aspects of business.[8]

Before that, Black, along with co-founder Sebastian Bailey, started The Mind Gym at his kitchen table in 2000.[9] The company, which is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, designs and delivers corporate learning and development programmes. It offers 90-minute-long training sessions known as "workouts".[10] The company serves 53% of S&P 100 and 61% of FTSE 100 companies[11] via 400 qualified Mind Gym Coaches delivering in 40 countries. It operates from three offices (New York, London, Singapore).[12]

In February 2018 the Mind Gym was successfully listed on the AIM with a valuation of £145 million. The same year, it was listed in the Top 20 leadership training companies by the training industry and[13] No. 36 on the list of the Top 100 private companies with the fastest growing profits by The Sunday Times.[citation needed]

With co-founder Sebastian Bailey, Black co-authored three books (The Mind Gym: Wake Your Mind Up,[14] The Mind Gym: Give Me Time,[15] The Mind Gym: Relationships[16]).

Black's Parent Gym is a six-week parenting programme for parents of children aged 2–11. It is funded by Black's commercial enterprise, Mind Gym, and applies its corporate training knowledge to teach parenting skills.[17] It was piloted in 2010 and runs 150 programmes every year for parents areas including London and Brighton and Black said he hopes to roll it out nationwide.[18]

Black was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to entrepreneurship, business, life sciences and the community.[19]

Black is a regular public commentator on workplace issues, including in The Telegraph,[20] City AM,[21] The Times,[22] The FT[23] and more. He has given a TEDx talk on how to make workplaces more inclusive,[24] and in May 2023 hosted a CHRO Summit at the Royal Opera House, London, with speakers including Dame Emma Walmsley, Martha Lane Fox, Sir Trevor Phillips and Matthew Syed.[25][26][27][28]

## Personal life[edit]

Black married Joanne Cash, a libel barrister, in December 2007. Friends who attended their exchange of vows "included Ed Vaizey and Michael Gove, [...] Viscount and Viscountess Rothermere, Stuart Rose and Kirstie Allsopp."[29] The Telegraph called Cash a "rising star" of the Conservative Party when she stood for Westminster North in the 2010 general election.[30]

The couple are reported to live in Notting Hill.[31]

## References[edit]

1. ^ "Octavius Orlando Irvine Casati BLACK". Companies House. GOV.uk. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
2. ^ a b "BLACK, Brinsley Graham". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 29 April 2018. "Brinsley died peacefully at home on 25th September 2010, aged 81. Beloved husband of Moorea, brother of Hilary, father of Octavius and Eliza-Jane, stepfather of Pericles and proud grandfather of Bronte"
3. ^ "Brinsley Black". Getty Images. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
4. ^ Clee, Nicholas (23 November 2014). "The Red Earl: The Extraordinary Life of the 16th Earl of Huntingdon – a daughter's biography of her father". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
5. ^ "Woodrow, Verushka, Pericles and Petronella: welcome to the world of the Wyatts". The Independent. ESI Media. 20 November 2004.
6. ^ The History of TAM – AGB to Nielsen AGB Nielsen, December 2004 Archived 1 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine
7. ^ "Acquisition: The motives behind Omnicom's latest buy – Omnicom has had its chequebook out again, this time to buy up Fleishman-Hillard. The move mirrors the approach it has taken to building its advertising agency networks". PR Week. Haymarket Media Group. 18 April 1997. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
8. ^ "The Telegraph". Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
9. ^ Ivy Pasic (1 August 2009). "Meet the savvy company revolutionising the way we use – and improve – our grey matter". EasyJet Traveller. EasyJet.
10. ^ "Quick fix". Personnel Today. DVV Media International. 1 May 2001.
11. ^ About us Mind Gym
12. ^ Companies House (2014). "Annual Report and Financial Statements Year Ended 31 March 2014; Company Number 03833448". `{{cite web}}`: Missing or empty `|url=` (help)
13. ^ "2018 Top Leadership Training Companies". Training Industry. 23 February 2018.
14. ^ The Mind Gym: Wake Up Your Mind. 29 January 2019. ISBN 978-0-316-72992-5.
15. ^ "The Mind Gym: Give Me Time : Mind Gym : 9780316731690". bookdepository.com. Retrieved 25 December 2021.
16. ^ Gym, Mind (2009). Relationships. Sphere. ISBN 978-1-84744-063-1.
17. ^ ParentGym
18. ^ Robert Booth (18 May 2012). "Mind Gym tycoon wants to roll out free parenting lessons across country". The Guardian.
19. ^ "No. 63918". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N9.
20. ^ Oliver, Matt (4 January 2022). "'Unconscious bias training is a fad that doesn't work'". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
21. ^ "The Notebook: Octavius Black on HR's 'Davos', how to fix low productivity rates and wellbeing". www.cityam.com. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
22. ^ Black, Octavius (13 June 2023). "Want to keep hold of your workforce? Then embrace soft power". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
23. ^ "Politics in the workplace: how to deal with opposing views". www.ft.com. 29 November 2022. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
24. ^ Are you one of us? What behavioural science reveals on inclusion | Octavius Black | TEDxSquareMile, retrieved 13 June 2023
25. ^ "The Notebook: Octavius Black on HR's 'Davos', how to fix low productivity rates and wellbeing". www.cityam.com. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
26. ^ Field, Matthew; Corfield, Gareth (18 May 2023). "TikTok purposefully dumbing down Western teenagers, claims Lastminute.com founder". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
27. ^ Field, Matthew; Price, Chris (18 May 2023). "We must fight back against end of home working, says Microsoft executive". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
28. ^ Ralph, Alex (13 June 2023). "Dame Emma Walmsley: chief executives are not superheroes". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
29. ^ Eden, Richard (7 February 2009). "David Cameron finds new 'guru'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
30. ^ "Rising stars: new face of the Conservatives". The Telegraph. 10 September 2009. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
31. ^ "Joanne Cash concedes defeat with rant at the press". Evening Standard. London. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 29 April 2018.

## External links[edit]

* The Mind Gym