Jeffrey Fairburn (born 22 May 1966) is a British businessman, currently chief executive of Berkeley DeVeer, a Yorkshire-based house-builder.
Fairburn was previously CEO of
Persimmon plc
Persimmon plc is a British housebuilding company, headquartered in York, England. The company is named after a horse which won the 1896 Derby and St. Leger for the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII). It is listed on the London Stock Ex ...
, a British housebuilding company and constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index
The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...
, from April 2013 to November 2018. In March 2017, he agreed to give a "substantial portion" of a £75 million bonus to charity, but, as of February 2021, no charitable involvement has been confirmed (however, in British law, private philanthropy without fundraising does not require the status of being a registered charity).
Early life
Jeffrey Fairburn was born on 22 May 1966.
He is the son of a motor mechanic father, grew up in
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
, and left
Fulford Comprehensive at the age of 17.
Career
After leaving school, Fairburn joined a two-year youth training scheme in York to become a
quantity surveyor
A quantity surveyor (QS) is a construction industry professional with expert knowledge on construction costs and contracts. Qualified professional quantity surveyors are known as Chartered Surveyors (Members and Fellows of RICS) in the UK and Ce ...
, working, and training for a
Higher National Certificate A Higher National Certificate (HNC), part of the Higher Nationals suite of qualifications, is a higher education/further education qualification in the United Kingdom.
Overview
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the HNC is a BTEC qualificatio ...
(HNC) qualification at
York Technical College
York Technical College (York Tech) is a public community college in Rock Hill, South Carolina. It is part of the South Carolina Technical College System and one of three colleges in the city of Rock Hill. York Tech was established in 1964 and pre ...
.
Fairburn joined
Persimmon
The persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus ''Diospyros''. The most widely cultivated of these is the Oriental persimmon, ''Diospyros kaki'' ''Diospyros'' is in the family Ebenaceae, and a number of non-pers ...
in 1989, becoming CEO in April 2013.
He was removed in November 2018 following a shareholder rebellion led by Aberdeen Standard Investments.
As of December 2017, Fairburn had been a director of 305 UK companies.
In December 2017, Persimmon's chairman,
Nicholas Wrigley
Nicholas Hugh Tremayne Wrigley (born 22 March 1955) is a British merchant banker and businessman, and the former chairman of Persimmon plc.
Early life
Wrigley was born on 22 March 1955, and educated at Harrow School. He is a chartered accountant. ...
, resigned over his role in awarding Fairburn a bonus in the region of £100 million.
The Persimmon bonus scheme is believed to be the UK's "most generous ever", and was scheduled to pay more than £500 million to 150 senior staff from 31 December 2016.
In March 2017, Fairburn agreed to hand back £25 million of the bonus and set aside a "substantial portion" of the sum to charity, bringing the total payout to £75 million. In October 2018, he walked off camera during a
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...
'' interview, after his press officer objected to his being asked about the bonus. His parting words to the reporter were "I think that's very unfortunate actually that you've done that." In November 2018, Persimmon asked Fairburn to leave the company.
The controversy around Fairburn continued in November 2019 when some politicians and campaigners urged him to reveal whether he has donated a portion of his controversial £75m bonus as he promised, as it appeared no charity had been set up in his name. A year after he was forced to step down, the Charity Commission said it had no record of a trust bearing Fairburn's name, nor did he appear as a trustee of any charity in England or Wales. And no charity involvement could be identified 15 months later, in February 2021.
He said, in a January 2020 ''This Is Money'' interview, that this was because it was private; in British law there is no requirement for private philanthropy to be registered as a charity when there is no fundraising over £5,000.
-based house-builder Berkeley DeVeer and became its chief executive.
to acquire Derbyshire-based housebuilder Avant Homes Group.
, there was speculation that Fairburn might take over as the rival housebuilder's CEO, but this was dismissed in December 2021.
Fairburn drives a Range Rover, enjoys Formula One racing, and his holiday destination of choice is Florida.