Laura Wade-Gery (born 1965) is a British business executive.

Early life

Wade-Gery (daughter of the late Sir Robert Wade-Gery) was educated at

Cheltenham Ladies' College Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to pr ...

and

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

, where she studied history and also achieved an ice-hockey

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

.Bolland lures Tesco's Laura Wade-Gery to run M&S's online operation
''The Guardian'', London, 7 February 2011 As a student she accompanied

William Dalrymple William Dalrymple may refer to: * William Dalrymple (1678–1744), Scottish Member of Parliament * William Dalrymple (moderator) (1723–1814), Scottish minister and religious writer * William Dalrymple (British Army officer) (1736–1807), Scott ...

on a journey across Asia which is described in Dalrymple's book '' In Xanadu''. Dalrymple has said of Wade-Gery: “Stories of her feats of endurance were common currency; if half of them were true, she had by the age of 21 made Freya Stark look like a dilettante. ... When travelling with her I could never decide whether she reminded me more of

Boadicea Boudica or Boudicca (, known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea, and in Welsh as ()), was a queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, who led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. She ...

Joyce Grenfell Joyce Irene Grenfell OBE (''née'' Phipps; 10 February 1910 – 30 November 1979) was an English diseuse, singer, actress and writer. She was known for the songs and monologues she wrote and performed, at first in revues and later in her solo s ...

..."

Career

After working at

Gemini Consulting Capgemini SE is a multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company, headquartered in Paris, France. History Capgemini was founded by Serge Kampf in 1967 as an enterprise management and data processing company. The compa ...

and

Kleinwort Benson Kleinwort Benson was a leading investment bank that offered a wide range of financial services from offices throughout the United Kingdom and Channel Islands. Two families, the Kleinworts and the Bensons, founded two different merchant banks in L ...

, Wade-Gery joined

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

in 1997 and rose to become chief executive of its online business. She was to have become commercial director of Tesco's non-food operation in 2011 but instead joined the

board Board or Boards may refer to: Flat surface * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat ** Plank (wood) ** Cutting board ** Sounding board, of a musical instrument * Cardboard (paper product) * Paperboard * Fiberboard ** Hardboard, a ty ...

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

as executive director of multi-channel

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

. She is also a member of the British Government's Digital Advisory Board, a trustee of the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...

, and a director of Snape Maltings Trading Limited. On 1 August 2018 Laura Wade-Gery became a non-executive director of NHS Improvement. Wade-Gery caused controversy by promoting a merger of national agencies of NHS England, NHSx, Education Health England and NHS Digital. The resulting merger projected a 40% reduction in headcount at a time that care services were under pressure from the aftermath of the pandemic response. Job losses were not relayed in dispatches in January 2023 in both the House of Commons or the House of Lords. Wade-Gery as of January 2023 held Executive Director positions for the British Land Company plc and directorships including Britten Pears Arts (Suffolk) and Legal and General Group. Whilst as executive director of NHS Digital, Wade-Gery presided through the merger process which was challenged by NHS Unions citing lack of consultation and constrained timeframes. Following the merger Wade-Gery has taken a non-executive role for NHS England.

References

1965 births Living people People educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford British women business executives Tesco people Marks & Spencer people {{UK-business-bio-1960s-stub