Rowan Gormley (born 8 June 1962) is a South African-born entrepreneur. He was appointed Group

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 Majestic Wine PLC after the acquisition of Naked Wines in April 2015.

Early life

Gormley studied at Selborne College,

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

and the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

. He trained as an accountant with the firm

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporat ...

LLC. in South Africa for three years before moving to the United Kingdom in 1987 to work in venture capital for Electra Capital Partners.

Career

Gormley was in private equity for seven years before going to work for

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

in 1994. Branson brought him to Virgin to identify new business opportunities. When he spotted financial services as a potential area for Virgin to explore, Branson asked Gormley to run it, and Virgin Direct (now

Virgin Money Virgin Money is a financial services brand used by two independent brand-licensees worldwide from the Virgin Group. Virgin Money branded services are currently available in Australia and the United Kingdom. The brand formerly operated in South Af ...

) was born in 1995 with Gormley as

. Whilst at Virgin Direct, Gormley was also behind the launch of

The One Account The One account is a secured personal bank account with The Royal Bank of Scotland plc offering offset and flexible mortgages in the UK. History The company pioneered the offset mortgage in the UK and; was conceived as a joint venture between ...

, now a part of

Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS; gd, Banca Rìoghail na h-Alba) is a major retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest (in England and Wales) and Ulster Bank ...

. After leaving Virgin Money, he launched three new start-ups. His first was Orgasmic Wines, with the help of his business partner Laura Knight and his brother Clinton Gormley. The firm became

Virgin Wines Virgin Wines Online Limited, trading as Virgin Wines, is an online wine retailer based in the United Kingdom. The company was established in 2000 by Richard Branson's Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational venture capit ...

in 2000 when Richard Branson bought into the business. Laithwaites subsequently bought Virgin Wines, and Gormley left the company in June 2008.

Naked Wines

Gormley set up

Naked Wines Naked Wines is an online wine retailer founded by Rowan Gormley which launched in the UK on 1 December 2008. In 2015, the company was purchased by Majestic Wine, a British brick-and-mortar retailer. History Naked Wines was founded by Rowan ...

in December 2008 with eight of the old

team. Naked Wines was launched in the US and Australia in 2012. On 10 April 2015 Naked Wines was acquired by

Majestic Wine Majestic Wine is Great Britain’s largest specialist retailer of wine. The company employs over 1,400 staff nationwide, and operates more than 200 stores in the United Kingdom. The business is headquartered in Watford and has a distribution cen ...

and Gormley was appointed CEO of the enlarged group.

Majestic Wine

Gormley announced his transformation plan for Majestic Wine in November 2015 and set the Group a new goal to achieve £500m annual sales by 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gormley, Rowan South African businesspeople Wine merchants 1962 births Living people