Nancy Cruickshank is a British

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

in beauty, fashion, and technology. She has founded three start-ups and helped launch several others. Since 2018, she is the Chief Digital Officer at Carlsberg group A/S.

Early life and education

Nancy Cruickshank was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Her father worked for

Revlon Revlon, Inc. is an American multinational company dealing in cosmetics, skin care, fragrance, and personal care. The headquarters of Revlon was established in New York City on March 1, 1932, where it still remains. Revlon was founded by brothe ...

and, when she was 11, her parents moved to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

while she attended a boarding school. She graduated from the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

with a degree in history.

Career

Cruickshank began her career at

Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast, and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The company's media ...

in magazine and advertising sales. In 1995 she was named commercial director of Condé Nast online and helped launch the publisher's titles online, including ''Vogue'' and '' GQ''. In April 2000 she and her husband, Jim, launched a property site, Smove.com. Cruickshank joined Handbag.com in 2000, as Managing Director and 'Founder' of the media business that she joined to take forward. The business was originally founded in 1999 by Dominic Riley, and provided email, internet access and operated as a portal with links to many women's websites. By 2014, Handbag had grown to be the number-one fashion and beauty website in the UK, with 1.5 million visits monthly. Cruickshank sold the Handbag Publishing Group to the National Magazine Company, a member of the Hearst Group, in 2006 for a reported £22 million. After staying on as managing director for another year, she became

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of VideoJug, a "how-to video website", in October 2007. In March 2009 she was named executive director of digital development for the

Telegraph Media Group Telegraph Media Group Limited (TMG; previously the Telegraph Group) is the proprietor of ''The Daily Telegraph'' and ''The Sunday Telegraph''. It is a subsidiary of Press Holdings. David and Frederick Barclay acquired the group on 30 July 2004, af ...

. From April 2012 to March 2013 she served as launch CEO of Weve, a media and

mobile commerce The term mobile commerce was originally coined in 1997 by Kevin Duffey at the launch of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum, to mean "the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless techno ...

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

for UK mobile operators. In June 2012 Cruickshank, together with Kate Shapland, Rodrigo Dauster, and Olivier Beau de Loménie, launched MyShowcase.com. This direct-sales retailer promotes 25 beauty brands through home showings led by MyShowcase salespeople; products are also sold online.

Other activities

Cruickshank served for many years as a board member of the

Cosmetic Executive Women Cosmetic Executive Women (CEW) is a trade organization for the cosmetics, fragrance and personal care industry. History CEW was founded in 1954 as a social organization for female executives working in the beauty industry. In 1975, the group expa ...

trade organisation. In 2013 she became an independent non-executive director for the

TelecityGroup Telecity Group plc (formerly TelecityRedbus and before that Telecity), was a European carrier-neutral datacentre and colocation centre provider. It specialised in the design, build and management of datacentre space. It was listed on the London ...

. In 2014 she was named an independent director of

OnMobile OnMobile is an Indian telecommunications company, headquartered in Bangalore. It offers products such as Videos, Tones, Games & Contests. Based on current deployments, OnMobile has over 100 million active subscribers and an addressable base of ...

Personal

Cruickshank met her husband, Jim, at the University of Leeds when they were both 19. They married in 1997 and have two daughters. They maintain homes in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

and

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, which they live between throughout the year with their children and two dogs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruickshank, Nancy Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Women Internet pioneers Internet pioneers Women chief executives British chief executives Chief executives in the technology industry Alumni of the University of Leeds Businesspeople from London