Our Founder

Kenneth Townsley is a businessman, philanthropist and founder of The Kentown Wizard Foundation

Ken’s story began in 1945 when he was born in Blackpool to working class parents.

His life-long love affair with the travel industry started in the early 1960s at Blackpool Airport where he worked as a passenger handling apprentice. From these humble beginnings, Ken went on to build the multi-award-winning Gold Medal Travel Group, which was the UK’s largest British-owned tour operator when he came to sell it to Thomas Cook in 2009.

Innovative, entrepreneurial and pioneering, Ken built his business empire through hard work and ingenuity. A self-made man through and through.

Sold over 3 million scheduled flights a year

Had a database of 2.8 million customers serving over 150,000 destinations

Had 1 million website visits per week and produced 1 million brochures per year

Every 30 seconds a Gold Medal passenger checked in at a UK airport

Every 30 minutes a Gold Medal client hired a car in Orlando

Every 60 minutes a Gold Medal client checked into a hotel in Australia

500 Passengers a day travel to Dubai through Gold Medal, making them the UK's number one Dubai tour operator

300 clients a night stayed in New York hotels

125 passengers a day travelled to Australia through Gold Medal

90 passengers a day travelled to Thailand through Gold Medal and 26,000 travelled each year to Bangkok

Sold more flights to Hong Kong and Singapore than any other UK operator

But Ken’s remarkable story did not end there. To have built the Gold Medal empire in the way that he did was an astonishing achievement but what happened next is truly awe-inspiring. In 2015 Ken decided that having amassed his fortune through hard work and ingenuity he would dedicate the bulk of it to benefit of others.

And so Ken established The Kentown Wizard Foundation with the aim of having a positive and enduring impact on the lives of children and young adults with life-threatening conditions and serious disabilities. He has since donated or pledged in excess of £100 million to the Foundation.

When Ken was asked why he decided to gift such a substantial amount of money he replied:

“I didn’t want to just leave this money in my Will to benefit various charities at some point in the future. I wanted to see it being used to help those in need now, today and tomorrow and to know that my success has been put to the best possible use.”