Humphrey Michael Cobbold (born Nairobi, Kenya 1964) is the current Chief Executive Officer of Pure Gym which is the UK’s largest Gym operator. He joined the business in 2015 when there were 84 gyms, growing the business to over 200 facilities in 2018. He oversaw the sale of the business for the founder (Peter Roberts) and investors from CCMP to Leonard Green & Partners in November 2017 for over £600m.
He is the former Chief Executive Officer of Wiggle Ltd - a UK-based online retailer of cycling and triathlon related products. He is a former chairman of
Fish4, a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
recruitment website, as well as the Director of Strategic Development and
Executive Committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
member of
Trinity Mirror.
Prior to joining Fish4 and
Trinity Mirror, he was a partner
and the co-head of the UK
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
practice for the global
management consulting
Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultant ...
firm
McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...
. He graduated from the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
and holds an
MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
from
INSEAD
INSEAD, a contraction of "Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires" () is a non-profit business school that maintains campuses in Europe ( Fontainebleau, France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, UAE), and North America (San ...
.
Cobbold was taught in secondary school by prominent UK politician
Edwina Curry before she went into politics.
Leaving Wiggle
In September 2009, Humphrey Cobbold began his position as the CEO of Wiggle Ltd., a Portsmouth-based online retailer. He headed the bicycle online retailer during some trying times, including during the period when
Bridgepoint was in the process of acquiring Wiggle Ltd. In late 2013, Cobbold departed from Wiggle as its CEO and in September of that year, his successor would be Stefan Barden. While Cobbold captained Wiggle Ltd. the company saw its annual sales revenues increase from 33 million pounds to a little over 140 million pounds; Cobbold described managing the company while it was experiencing extremely fast and high growth like "trying to ride a tiger".
Upon leaving Wiggle Ltd. as its CEO, Cobbold stated:
“I have had the privilege to work with a truly fabulous group of colleagues and business partners over the last four years. The time is now right for someone else to lead the peloton and take Wiggle forward to future success.”
He has since been linked to a bid to buy the internet retailer sofa.com.
PureGym
Since 2013 Cobbold has been serving as the CEO of
PureGym
PureGym Limited is a British chain of no frills health clubs based in the United Kingdom with multiple gyms around the world. The chain is headquartered in Leeds, West Yorkshire, with additional offices in London and Southampton.
It is Brita ...
, a network of 264 gyms with more than 1.1 million members. In 2019 PureGym acquired Fitness World.
References
*Fat Face owner buys Wiggle; Carlton Reid; Bike Biz; December 7, 2011
1964 births
Living people
McKinsey & Company people
{{UK-business-bio-1960s-stub