Sir Ian Michael Cheshire (born 6 August 1959) is a British businessman, formerly chairman of Barclays UK, the ring-fenced UK subsidiary of

Barclays Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

. He stepped down on 1 January 2021 and was succeeded by Crawford Gillies. He is lead non-executive director for the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...

board, campaign chairman of Heads Together, chair of

The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund The Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund (PWCF) awards approximately £3 million to a range of charitable causes annually. It was founded by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) in 1979, and is registered as The Prince of Wales's Charitable Found ...

, chair of the independent charity, the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, and a trustee of The Institute for Government. He was previously chief executive (CEO) of

Kingfisher plc Kingfisher plc is a British multinational retailing company headquartered in London, England. It has over 1,300 stores in nine countries, and its brands include B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt and Screwfix. Kingfisher is listed on the London St ...

, a British multinational retailing company, and was chairman of the British department store chain

Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain operating in the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and grew to 178 locations across those countries, also owning the Danish ...

from 2016 to 2019.

Education

Cheshire was educated at

The King's School, Canterbury The King's School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for 13 to 18 year old pupils) in Canterbury, Kent, England. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group. It is Britain's ...

, and graduated in economics and law from

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

in 1980.

Career

Cheshire's first job was with

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by rev ...

, before working for

Guinness Guinness () is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ove ...

, as

Ernest Saunders Ernest Walter Saunders (born 21 October 1935) is a British former business manager. He became known in the UK as one of the " Guinness Four", a group of businessmen who attempted fraudulently to manipulate the share price of the Guinness compa ...

' executive assistant, and

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

, before joining Kingfisher as strategy director in 1998. He subsequently ran E KIngfisher, the e-commerce division which acquired Screwfix. After that he was CEO international before becoming CEO of B&Q in 2005. In January 2008, Kingfisher appointed Cheshire as group chief executive. In 2012, Cheshire won

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

Sustainable Business Leader of the Year award. His vision of B&Q "customers renting power drills as opposed to buying them" (drills are used for a mere six minutes a year on average) has captured imaginations, and is a widely used example of a mainstream business adopting a more collaborative approach to its products and services. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to business, sustainability, and the environment. In September 2014, it was announced that

Véronique Laury Véronique Laury (born 29 June 1965) is a French businesswoman, was chief executive officer (CEO) of Kingfisher, a UK based retail group, from February 2015 to September 2019. In March 2019, it was announced that Laury would leave Kingfisher at ...

would replace Cheshire as CEO of Kingfisher from February 2015. In January 2015 it was announced that he would succeed Lord Browne as lead non-executive director for the government. He was also the senior independent director of Whitbread plc until 2017 and the chair of the advisory board of the Cambridge institute of sustainability leadership until 2015 In January 2016 he was nominated as chairman-elect of Debenhams, the international department store group. On 7 April 2016, he succeeded

Nigel Northridge Nigel Hargreaves Northridge (born January 1956) is a British businessman, the chairman of Hogg Robinson Group since April 2016, and was the chairman of the British multinational department store chain, Debenhams from April 2010 to April 2016. Ea ...

who had been chairman since April 2010. He was voted off the board on 10 January 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheshire, Ian 1959 births Living people People educated at The King's School, Canterbury Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge British chief executives Knights Bachelor Businesspeople awarded knighthoods