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Rowan Gormley
Rowan Gormley (born 8 June 1962) is a South African-born entrepreneur. He was appointed Group CEO of Majestic Wine PLC after the acquisition of Naked Wines in April 2015. Early life Gormley studied at Selborne College, East London and the University of Cape Town. He trained as an accountant with the firm Arthur Andersen LLC. in South Africa for three years before moving to the United Kingdom in 1987 to work in venture capital for Electra Capital Partners. Career Gormley was in private equity for seven years before going to work for Richard Branson in 1994. Branson brought him to Virgin to identify new business opportunities. When he spotted financial services as a potential area for Virgin to explore, Branson asked Gormley to run it, and Virgin Direct (now Virgin Money) was born in 1995 with Gormley as CEO. Whilst at Virgin Direct, Gormley was also behind the launch of The One Account, now a part of Royal Bank of Scotland. After leaving Virgin Money, he launched three ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chief Executive Officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially an independent legal entity such as a company or nonprofit institution. CEOs find roles in a range of organizations, including public and private corporations, non-profit organizations and even some government organizations (notably state-owned enterprises). The CEO of a corporation or company typically reports to the board of directors and is charged with maximizing the value of the business, which may include maximizing the share price, market share, revenues or another element. In the non-profit and government sector, CEOs typically aim at achieving outcomes related to the organization's mission, usually provided by legislation. CEOs are also frequently assigned the role of main manager of the organization and the highest-ranking offic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Majestic Wine
Majestic Wine is Great Britain’s largest specialist retailer of wine. The company employs over 1,400 staff nationwide, and operates more than 200 stores in the United Kingdom. The business is headquartered in Watford and has a distribution centre in Hemel Hempstead. History 1980 to 1999 Majestic Vintners was founded by Sheldon Graner in 1980. Prior to Majestic Vintners, Graner gained worked as a merchandiser with the John Lewis group. The initial design logo for the company was based on a definitive set of King George V postage stamps of 1929. During the 1970s, laws regarding selling alcohol were restrictive in the United Kingdom. Majestic Vinters offered wine tastings and sold wine by the case to comply with the laws. Graner opened his first wine warehouse in Harringay, North London, in 1980, under the management of Tony Mason, brought in by Graner to manage the day-to-day activities. The second store was opened in Battersea in May 1981. In the middle of 1981, the group ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naked Wines
Naked Wines is an online wine retailer founded by Rowan Gormley which launched in the UK on 1 December 2008. In 2015, the company was purchased by Majestic Wine, a British brick-and-mortar retailer. History Naked Wines was founded by Rowan Gormley on 1 December 2008. In March 2010, Naked Wines announced a pricing model called Advance Bookings at the London International Wine Fair. The model discounts wine when ordered in advance. Advance Bookings altered its booking model and renamed it Naked Marketplace in May 2011. Customers can bid on upcoming wines until a minimum volume is met and the wine is subsequently sold. On 10 April 2015, Naked Wines was acquired by Majestic Wine, and Rowan Gormley was named CEO. In 2019, Majestic announced that the business would be restructured. A portion of the business, including stores and branding were sold to private equity firm Fortress Investment Group. Majestic Wines PLC was renamed to Naked Wines and retained the shares of the ori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East London, Eastern Cape
East London ( xh, eMonti; af, Oos-Londen) is a city on the southeast coast of South Africa in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality of the Eastern Cape province. The city lies on the Indian Ocean coast, largely between the Buffalo River (Eastern Cape), Buffalo River and the Nahoon River, and hosts the country's only river port. , East London had a population of over 267,000 with over 755,000 in the metropolitan area. History Early history John Bailie, one of the 1820 Settlers, surveyed the Buffalo River (Eastern Cape), Buffalo River mouth and founded the town in 1836. There is a memorial on Signal Hill commemorating the event. The city formed around the only river port in South Africa and was originally known as Port Rex. Later it was renamed London in honour of the capital city of the United Kingdom, hence the name East London. This settlement on the West Bank was the nucleus of the town of East London, which was elevated to city status in 1914. During the early to mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest university in Sub-Saharan Africa in continuous operation. UCT is organised in 57 departments across six faculties offering bachelor's ( NQF 7) to doctoral degrees ( NQF 10) solely in the English language. Home to 30 000 students, it encompasses six campuses in the Capetonian suburbs of Rondebosch, Hiddingh, Observatory, Mowbray, and the Waterfront. Although UCT was founded by a private act of Parliament in 1918, the Statute of the University of Cape Town (issued in 2002 in terms of the Higher Education Act) sets out its structure and roles and places the Chancellor - currently, Dr Precious Moloi Motsepe - as the ceremonial figurehead and invests real leadership ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Andersen
Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporations and was one of the "Big Five" accounting firms (along with Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers). The firm collapsed by mid-2002, as details of its questionable accounting practices for energy company Enron and telecommunications company Worldcom were revealed amid the two high-profile bankruptcies. The scandals were a factor in the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. In 2002, just nine months after the scandal broke, the firm was found guilty of crimes in the auditing of Enron. By that time, Arthur Andersen had lost most of its business and two-thirds of its 28,000 employees, and was facing multi-million dollar lawsuits. On August 31, 2002, the company surrendered its licenses to practice as c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneur at a young age. His first business venture, at the age of 16, was a magazine called ''Student''. In 1970, he set up a mail-order record business. He opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records—later known as Virgin Megastores—in 1972. Branson's Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s, as he started Virgin Atlantic airline and expanded the Virgin Records music label. In 1997, Branson founded the Virgin Rail Group to bid for passenger rail franchises during the privatisation of British Rail. The Virgin Trains brand operated the InterCity West Coast franchise from 1997 to 2019, the InterCity CrossCountry franchise from 1997 to 2007, and the InterCity East Coast franchise from 2015 to 2018. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Losing My Virginity
''Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography'' is the autobiography of the British businessman Richard Branson. Published in 1998, it was later followed by other biographical books by Branson, including ''Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur'' (2008) and ''The Virgin Way: How to Listen, Learn, Laugh and Lead'' (2014). A paperback version () was released in 2002. An updated edition was released in 2005 in hardback and paperback expressing Branson's views on 9/11 and how it has affected his business, especially his airline Virgin Atlantic. ''Losing My Virginity'' was positively reviewed by Tom Fawcett writing for CNN in 1999. Fawcett wrote that "...Branson offers a fascinating autobiography of a man who succeeded by taking huge risks, proving that the established way is not the only way." and that "The strength of ''Losing my Virginity'' is Branson's modesty and honesty. ...Often criticized by the media for being a showman, Branson reasons that he only used his p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virgin Publishing
Virgin Books is a British book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Group, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company. History Virgin established its book publishing arm in the late 1970s; in the latter part of the 1980s Virgin purchased several existing companies, including WH Allen, well known among ''Doctor Who'' fans for their Target Books imprint; Virgin Books was incorporated into WH Allen in 1989, but in 1991 WH Allen was renamed Virgin Publishing Ltd. Virgin Publishing's early success came with the ''Doctor Who'' New Adventures novels, officially licensed full-length novels carrying on the story of the popular science-fiction television series following its cancellation in 1989. Virgin published this series from 1991 to 1997, as well as a range of ''Doctor Who'' reference books from 1992 to 1998 under the Doctor Who Books imprint. In recent times the company is best known for its commercial non-f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virgin Money
Virgin Money is a financial services brand used by two independent brand-licensees worldwide from the Virgin Group. Virgin Money branded services are currently available in Australia and the United Kingdom. The brand formerly operated in South Africa and the United States. Each Virgin Money branded entity acts independently from the others, thus the products vary from country to country. Current brand licensees Virgin Money Australia Virgin Money currently has operations in Australia with 150,000 customers and is owned by Bank of Queensland. Virgin Money UK Virgin Money currently has operations in the United Kingdom, the company was initially established as a personal finance company under the name of Virgin Direct in 1995, and the Virgin Money brand itself was introduced in 2000. Virgin Money vastly increased its size and customer base in 2012 with the purchase of the so-called 'good bank' portion of the nationalised Northern Rock bank. In 2018, the entire UK operation of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The One Account
The One account is a secured personal bank account with The Royal Bank of Scotland plc offering offset and flexible mortgages in the UK. History The company pioneered the offset mortgage in the UK and; was conceived as a joint venture between Virgin Direct (Virgin's financial services company) and The Royal Bank of Scotland in 1997. Initially, the company was known as the 'Virgin One account' and promoted to Virgin Direct's 200,000 strong UK customer base. The launch was very successful and was extended to the entire British public in May 1998. From January 2003, the company relaunched as 'The One account' when The Royal Bank of Scotland took a majority shareholding, becoming an RBS mortgage brand along with NatWest and First Active. The One account is operated directly by phone, internet and post, with the customer service originally being provided on a 24/365 basis, but now reduced to a weekday and Saturday peak hour service. Distribution As well as being sold directly by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Bank Of Scotland
The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS; gd, Banca Rìoghail na h-Alba) is a major retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest (in England and Wales) and Ulster Bank. The Royal Bank of Scotland has around 700 branches, mainly in Scotland, though there are branches in many larger towns and cities throughout England and Wales. The bank is completely separate from the fellow Edinburgh-based bank, the Bank of Scotland, which pre-dates the Royal Bank by 32 years. The Royal Bank of Scotland was established in 1724 to provide a bank with strong Hanoverian and Whig ties. Following ring-fencing of the Group's core domestic business, the bank became a direct subsidiary of NatWest Holdings in 2019. NatWest Markets comprises the Group's investment banking arm. To give it legal form, the former RBS entity was renamed NatWest Markets in 2018; at the same time Adam and Company (which held a separate PRA banking ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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