Captive Minds Communications Group

Captive Minds Communications Group is an independent company managing productions, communities and original content creation for brands, broadcasters and talent in sport and adventure.

History

Captive Minds was established in Battersea, London in 2003 by founders Marcus Chidgey and Alex Rayner, having come from Apple Inc.^[1] and Freud Communications respectively. Initially developed as a communications company, Captive Minds expanded over the course of a decade to cover a range of services allowing the company to manage and own their own projects as well as working on projects and campaigns for others.

The company focuses on the theme of adventure, having run expeditions and projects for explorers such as Bear Grylls and David Hempleman-Adams, and brands such as Willis Group (The Willis Resilience Expedition^[2] with Parker Liautaud), Virgin Money and Glenfiddich for Walking With The Wounded (The Virgin Money South Pole Allied Challenge 2013 with HRH Prince Harry^[3]) and Massey Ferguson (Antarctica2^[4])

In late 2013, Julian Staveley joined Captive Minds as Special Projects Director^[5] before becoming COO in 2015.

A new group of investors joined Captive Minds in late 2014^[6] led by Bob Wigley, previously EMEA chairman at Merrill Lynch, including James Gallon, a scion of Tesco founder Jack Cohen, and entrepreneur Dominic McVey. At the same time a new advisory board was created, chaired by events promoter Harvey Goldsmith and including non-executive directors Joshua King - First Data SVP for Global Comms,^[7] explorer Inge Solheim,^[8] founder and chairman of the Global Partnerships Forum^[9] Amir Dossal and tech entrepreneur^[10] Herb Kim.

In 2015, Tracey Day joined as CFO and co-founder Alex Rayner left to pursue other projects, though he remains Board Director.

References