Archie Norman
Archibald John Norman (born 1 May 1954), known as Archie Norman, is a businessman and former Conservative politician. He is best known for what Management Today calls his 'legendary years' at Asda during the 1990s, when he cut 5,000 jobs before eventually selling the company to Walmart giving shareholders a 1,000 per cent returns. [1] He is a co-founder of Policy Exchange and its now defunct sister organisation CChange.
Education and business career
Norman attended the elite British public school Charterhouse [2] and then Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he studied economics. After graduating in 1975 he joined Citibank, where he worked until 1977. He was awarded an MBA in economics from Harvard Business School in 1979 and joined the management consultancy company McKinsey [3] where he was appointed the company's youngest partner at the age of 29. [4]
In 1986 he was appointed finance director of Woolworth Holdings plc (later renamed Kingfisher plc). He was also Chairman of the company's property subsidiary Chartwell Land plc until 1991. [5] That year he was appointed chief executive of Asda. He headed the company until 1996 and then served as Chairman from 1997 to 2000. [6] As chief executive Norman had to make what the Telegraph calls 'tough decisions' such as 'cutting 5,000 jobs'. Asda was grew into Britain's second largest supermarket group sold to WalMart in 1999 for £6.5 billion. [7] Norman was also a non-executive director of British Rail (later Railtrack) from 1992-2000. He was also Chairman of the telecommunications company Energis from 2002-2005.
From 2006 to 2009 he was Chairman of the private equity firm Aurigo Management. He has been a non-executive director of Holmes Place since 2003 and a senior advisor to the investment bank Lazard since 2004. [8] In November 2009 it was announced that Norman would be appointed Chairman of ITV. According to the Guardian, 'The City reacted positively to Norman's appointment, with ITV's share price up 4.7% in early trading'. [9]
Politics
In 1997 Norman was elected Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells and whilst still Chairman of Asda he was chief executive and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party from 1997 to 1999. He was the first FTSE-100 chairman to sit in the House of Commons. [10]
He was a Shadow Minister in William Hague's Shadow Cabinet, serving as Shadow Minister for Europe 1999-2000 and Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions 2000-01. [11] Norman left parliament in 2005.
Affiliations
References
- ↑ Chris Blackhurst, 'Exclusive MT interview: Archie Norman', Management Today, 3 September 2007.
- ↑ Nick Mathiason, 'Norman to the rescue - again', The Observer, 11 June 2006
- ↑ ‘NORMAN, Archibald John’, Who's Who 2010, A & C Black, 2010; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2009; Debrett's People of Today,Norman, Esq [Accessed 15 April 2010]
- ↑ Helia Ebrahimi, 'Archie Norman: the ex-Asda boss who saves businesses on the shelf', Daily Telegraph, 3 July 2009.
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today,Norman, Esq [Accessed 15 April 2010]
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today,Norman, Esq [Accessed 15 April 2010]
- ↑ Helia Ebrahimi, 'Archie Norman: the ex-Asda boss who saves businesses on the shelf', Daily Telegraph, 3 July 2009.
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today,Norman, Esq [Accessed 15 April 2010]
- ↑ Jason Deans and Graeme Wearden, 'Archie Norman named ITV chairmanFormer Tory MP and Asda chief executive to replace Michael Grade at broadcaster', guardian.co.uk, 18 November 2009
- ↑ Chris Blackhurst, 'Exclusive MT interview: Archie Norman', Management Today, 3 September 2007.
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today,Norman, Esq [Accessed 15 April 2010]
