Archie Norman is one of Britain’s leading businessmen with a long term track record of business change and value creation. He has led transformations of major British businesses in the UK and abroad, served on the Boards of several others, and built strong management teams who are now in leading positions in several major British companies. Archie has also served as a Member of Parliament for eight years and worked at the highest level in British politics.
Archie was a member of a three strong team that established and built Kingfisher plc in the 1980s to become Britain’s leading general merchandise retailer. In 1991 he took over as Chief Executive of Asda. Over the subsequent eight years the business was transformed into the second largest supermarket group before being sold to Wal-Mart for an eight times multiple of the starting share price. In 2002, Archie acquired Energis, Britain’s third largest telecoms business, on behalf of the creditor banks and over four years refocused and rebuilt the business before agreeing a sale to Cable and Wireless for double the original enterprise value.
Archie was Chairman of ITV from January 2010 until May 2016. October 2016–August 2020 he served as Lead Non Executive Director at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. In 2017 he was appointed Chairman of Marks and Spencer plc.
