Marc Bolland (born 28 March 1959) is a Dutch businessman, who was the CEO of
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 ...
, after having been CEO of UK supermarket company
Morrisons
Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headqu ...
.
Biography
Early life
He received a bachelor's degree from the
Hotelschool The Hague
Hotelschool The Hague is a single sector university of applied sciences in the Netherlands. It was founded and funded in 1929 by the hospitality industry. In 2010, Hotelschool The Hague founded its university wide Research Centre, focusing on inte ...
, and then 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 ...
at the
University of Groningen
The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...
.
Heineken
He began as a graduate at
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
-based
Heineken International
Heineken N.V. () is a Dutch multinational brewing company, founded in 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam. , Heineken owns over 165 breweries in more than 70 countries. It produces 348 international, regional, local and speciality be ...
NV, the third largest brewer in the world, in 1987. Bolland worked in various international management positions in Africa and Central Europe before joining the Heineken board in 2001. He became
chief operating officer
A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...
in 2005. Bolland has been credited with both building and rolling out the Heineken brand internationally.
Morrisons
In September 2006, he was appointed CEO of the UK supermarket chain
Morrisons
Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headqu ...
. Morrisons had acquired
Safeway in 2004 creating a 130,000 people strong retail conglomerate in the UK. The merger initially proved unsuccessful. Bolland joined after five profit warnings with a brief to turn round the company.
By 2008, Morrisons had achieved strong growth in both market share and profits, and in 2008, Bolland was announced as ''The Times'' "Businessman of the year". Under his guidance, Morrisons "...gained significant market share from rivals".
Marks & Spencer
In November 2009, it was announced that Bolland would become CEO of
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 ...
Group PLC. In May 2010, he took over from the then chairman and CEO
Sir Stuart Rose
Stuart Alan Ransom Rose, Baron Rose of Monewden, Kt (born 17 March 1949) is a British businessman and life peer, who was the executive chairman of Marks & Spencer until 2010, remaining as chairman until early 2011. He was knighted in 2008 ...
. Bolland launched a plan to grow M&S into an international multi-channel retailer.
The ''
Evening Standard
The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format.
In October 2009, after be ...
'' named Bolland as one of "London's 1000 most influential people" for 2010.
During September 2011, he announced a new look store environment for M&S's UK stores, with a plan to complete the roll out to the entire UK estate by mid-2013. In 2011, M&S returned to France after a 10-year absence and also started the development of a new digital platform that was launched in February 2014.
In 2011, Bolland received an honorary doctorate from
York St John University
, mottoeng = They may have life and have it more abundantly
, established =
, type = Public
, administrative_staff = 618
, chancellor = Reeta Chakrabarti
, vice_chancellor = Professor Karen Bryan
, student ...
. He was named as "Most Admired Leader" at ''Management Today'' magazine's "Britain's Most Admired Companies 2011" awards having been nominated by his peers in the FTSE 100.
In 2014, Bolland was appointed as the Prince of Wales National Ambassador for Business in the Community.
In January 2016, it was announced that Bolland would be retiring as CEO of Marks and Spencer effective April 2016, and would be replaced by
Steve Rowe.
Blackstone
In September 2016, Bolland joined Blackstone as Senior Managing Director and Head of European Portfolio Operations for its Private Equity business. He subsequently was appointed Chairman of Blackstone Group International Partners (BGIP) in 2020.
Founder of Charitable Innovations
In 2012, Bolland founded “Movement to Work” in response to the Croydon riots. The Charity was set up to give disadvantaged young people (with disabilities, no education, ex-offenders etc) an opportunity of a work placement and work. Bolland set up the Charity’s structure and was Chairman for 5 years. By the end of 2021, Movement to Work has given over 137,000 work placements to the unemployed and more than 75,000 have found a permanent job, apprenticeship or returned to education.
In 2016, during the Syria crisis, Bolland in his role as Vice President UNICEF UK visited refugee camps in Jordan to better understand the delivery of education to refugees. Subsequent to the visit, Bolland developed an innovative digital education concept for refugee children, and children with limited access to education, to which he brought UNICEF and Cambridge University. The concept has been further developed in partnership with Microsoft, and has become “The Learning Passport”, which has been used by 1.5 million children and was nominated as one of the top 100 innovations of 2021 by Time Magazine.
Other activities
*
Royal Collection Trust
The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world.
Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...
, Deputy Chairman (since 2016)
*
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrup ...
, Member of the Board of Director (since 2015)
*
Exor, Non-Executive Member of the Board of Directors
* IAG (
International Airlines Group
International Consolidated Airlines Group S.A., trading as International Airlines Group and usually shortened to IAG, is an Anglo-Spanish multinational airline holding company with its registered office in Madrid, Spain, and its global headq ...
), Non-Executive Member of the Board of Directors (2016-2020)
*
Polymateria, Chair of the Board (since 2020)
*Vice President UNICEF UK (since 2010)
References
External links
Morrisons profileHeineken
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolland, Marc
1959 births
People from Apeldoorn
University of Groningen alumni
Heineken people
Dutch chief executives in the retail industry
Living people
Dutch businesspeople
Chief operating officers
Directors of The Coca-Cola Company
21st-century Belgian politicians
Marks & Spencer people