Alan Giles

Alan Giles comes from the retail businesses. He is currently Chairman of Fat Face Limited [1] and a Non-executive director of Rentokil Initial plc [2] and Wilson Bowden plc [3]. He was formerly Chief Executive Officer HMV Group plc, Managing Director of Waterstone's Booksellers Ltd and Executive Director WH Smith Group plc.

Giles is a member of the Office of Fair Trading board, which hopes to benefit from his vast retail business experience.

History

Giles formed HMV Group as CEO in 1998 as part of a leveraged buy-out. He took the group public in an Intitial Public Offering (IPO) with the London Stock Exchange in 2002. Then Giles retired in 2006 to pursue non-executive and teaching roles. He's also directed or sat on the boards of Waterstone’s, WH Smith Group, Do It All, and WH Smith Retail. Giles worked for Boots as a buyer, and for Somerfield plc in a non-executive capacity.

He has a Physics degree from University of Oxford (Merton College); a masters degree in Management from The Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, California; and has been an Associate Fellow for Osford said Business School.[4]

Notes

Office of Fair Trading, http://www.oft.gov.uk/about/organisation/board/giles, last accessed 04 March 2008: 21:51/>

<Fat Face Ltd, http://www.fatface.com/, last accessed 04 March 2008: 21:55/>

<Rentokil, http://www.uk.rentokil.com/, last accessed 04 March 2008: 21:57/>

<Wilson Bowden, http://www.wilsonbowden.co.uk/, last accessed 04 March 2008: 21:59/>

<Oxford Said Business School, http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/faculty/Giles+Alan/Giles+Alan.htm, last accessed 04 March 2008: 22:10/>