Octavius Black is a highly successful British entrepreneur, philanthropist and author. He founded the world’s first and leading behavioural science business, MindGym, which was successfully listed on AIM in 2018, and is currently valued at £150m.

MindGym has been at the frontier of modernisation in business, advising 62% of FTSE 100 and 55% of S&P100 on areas from productivity and digital transformation to inclusion and ethics. It has trained over 3 million professionals, delivering up to 300 live workouts each week across 40 different countries. The company is a significant exporter, with over 70% of revenue generated overseas, and has offices in New York and Singapore.

MindGym is on track to be one of the great British business success stories; unlike many founders, Black has retained the majority stake and has recently embarked on a major digital transformation strategy to help clients navigate a new post-pandemic world. MindGym also played an influential role in the formation of the original Downing Street Behavioural Insights Team.

Black is also a generous philanthropist. In 2009, together with his wife Joanne Cash, Black co-founded the social mobility programme ParentGym - which has delivered £3.6 million in value per annum over the past decade and more.

Once described by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as "the most hopeful thing I have seen", ParentGym provides free parenting classes in socially deprived parts of the UK including London, Brighton, Leeds, Manchester and Bristol. Pre-COVID, ParentGym reached approximately 1,500 parents each term with its six-week, live programme in creating nurturing environments where families thrive.

Black is co-author of four bestselling books, was a Sunday Telegraph business columnist and has authored numerous newspaper and magazine articles in the UK and US. Black is a respected voice on business and organisational issues and has made many regular media appearances, including a TED talk.

Prior to founding MindGym, Octavius was a director of the organisational communications consultancy Smythe Dorward Lambert and prior to that, he was an analyst at Booz Allen Hamilton. Octavius read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at The Queen’s College, Oxford University.