Biography - Robert Gaines-Cooper

Robert is a self-made entrepreneur whose combination of hard work and business acumen developed successful businesses in the UK and then abroad as the UK business environment for entrepreneurs deteriorated in the 1970s.

Robert describes himself as “a tenacious and hard-working entrepreneur with extreme adversity and lady luck as his constant companions.”

“I was bankrupt at eight years of age when my headmaster, Mr Forder, confiscated my entire inventory for destruction and, at the same time, advised my father that I would either end up on the street or become a millionaire.”

While at school, Robert started his first business:

“I went into partnership with another boy, Pete Wells, to sell pets to the boarders at school. We chose hamsters as they had the shortest gestation period of any rodent at just 13 days.”

On leaving school, he began National Service in the RAF which took him to Cyprus where he enjoyed the warmer climate. While in Cyprus, Robert became agent for the Sun Insurance office.

“It was a great success but it was in this role that I was sued by the Borgward Motor Company for damages for calling their cars a load of rubbish. These cars had tilted-in wheels which did not agree with the cambers on Cyprus roads and this caused several total losses. Happily, I escaped bankruptcy as the case was dismissed as I was on active service for the Suez crisis.”

In 1958, on completing National Service, Robert started his first business venture, Gainesmead Group, which supplied juke boxes to pubs, caravan parks and other sites throughout England. Rapid growth of the business throughout the late 1950s and 1960s made the firm an attractive acquisition target and in 1971, Gainesmead Group was sold to Music and Management Plc., which at the time was connected with Tom Jones. Robert joined Management and Music Plc. as finance director on completion of the acquisition and remained in that role until 1974.

At this time, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Dennis Healey, introduced a tax on unearned income of 98% which covered dividends and interest.

“At that rate of tax, we were going to see the wealth created by 14 years of work wiped out in just eight years time.”

In 1976, Robert emigrated to the Seychelles but UK exchange controls meant that his assets could not be released by the Bank of England until 2 September 1980. This meant substantial borrowings were needed to fund day to day living expenses and the capital to construct up the Chelle Plastics factory there in 1975 and gain a residency permit.

In order to address the liquidity issue, Robert began to work in Montreal in partnership with David Neale, because the Canadian banking system is very similar to that of the UK. The business gained planning permission for a golf course on the back of a development drive by Mayor Drapo ahead of the Olympic Games in 1976. The partnership then formed a construction company, which remained named its off-the-shelf number, 80247 because, as Robert explains, “We didn’t have time to name it. The business made a profit of just over $2m in the first year. Manna from heaven.”

Rene Levesque was elected to power at the end of that year and decided to separate Quebec from the rest of Canada.

“The builders all fled – leaving me bankrupt again.”

Robert and David Neale then moved to California and built several hundred homes in partnership with the City of San Jose, the profits of which cleared all the debts in Canada.

“Throughout this time, it was not possible for me to demonstrate my deep love of the Seychelles by remaining at home there, dipping my toes in the warm sea (as demanded by the Commissioners of the UK Revenue). Peripatetic? Well, there was no other choice. Meanwhile, back in the Seychelles, the new Government confiscated the plastics factory – so I was bankrupt again.”

In the same year (1989), Robert worked with a consultant anaesthetist called Dr Archie Brain who had invented a laryngeal masks to help surgeons and anaesthetists to manage the patient’s airway during surgery or emergency medicine. Dr Brain had been turned down for investment by all the medical companies he had approached. Robert backed the venture and was awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Society of Medicine for his role in developing and manufacturing the masks.

Robert served as group chairman of LMA (Laryngeal Mask Airway) N.V until 2009. Today, LMA Worldwide has sales of $107.6 m and is listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. Dr Brain’s name became well-known throughout the world for his invention and the device has helped over 300 million patients in operations.

Some years earlier, Robert bought another business in the medical sector, the Italian-based Orthofix from its founder, who worked as a Professor of Orthopaedics at Verona University. Robert spent the next five years expanding the business internationally and grew sales from around $7m to $30m. This expansion led to the 1992 flotation of the business on the NASDAQ exchange at a valuation of $120m.

Today, Orthofix is valued at $773m and achieved sales of $555m in the last financial year.

“My current interests are all at home in the Seychelles and include a drilling company for water boreholes and soil testing plus a development for 26 substantial villas on a 75 acre estate. In addition, I am working on a major water export project intended to provide water for the Middle East.”

“I am also working on the development of the PneuX.P.Y System which is a new medical device to prevent patients developing pneumonia in Intensive Care Units.”

“My main interest is saving lives. The Laryngeal Mask Airway has been used in over 300 million operations to date with no recorded loss of life. (By contrast, the endotracheal tube alternative has an accepted figure of 3 lives lost per million uses.”

“The new Venner PneuX.P.Y System has already saved lives and is now being put into clinical trials. Ventilator Assisted Pneumonia (VAP) is one of the main causes of death in hospitals and successful deployment of this device will save many thousands of lives – perhaps even my own.”