Harriet Green (born 12 December 1961) is a British businesswoman, who was chairman and CEO of IBM Asia Pacific, and previously led three IBM business divisions: the Internet of things, customer engagement and education businesses. She was CEO of the

Thomas Cook Group Thomas Cook Group plc was a global travel group, headquartered in the United Kingdom and listed on the London Stock Exchange from its formation on 19 June 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG — successor to Thomas Cook & Son — an ...

from July 2012 to November 2014.

Early life

Harriet Green was born on 12 December 1961 in

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

, England to Dermot Green and Nerys Allen. She grew up in

Shipton, Gloucestershire The twin villages of Shipton Oliffe and Shipton Solars are situated just from Cheltenham. The River Coln, just a small stream at this point, flows through the village over two fords and innumerable little water splashes, creating ornamental la ...

, east of Cheltenham, in the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jur ...

. She was educated at Westwood's Grammar School in

Northleach Northleach is a market town and former civil parish, now in parish Northleach with Eastington, in the Cotswold district, in Gloucestershire, England. The town is in the valley of the River Leach in the Cotswolds, about northeast of Cirencester ...

. She studied

medieval history In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1983. She then studied

Business Psychology Industrial and organizational psychology (I-O psychology), an applied discipline within psychology, is the science of human behavior in the workplace. Depending on the country or region of the world, I-O psychology is also known as occupational ...

at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

, graduating in 1985.

Career

Green spent her early career in the

electronic components An electronic component is any basic discrete device or physical entity in an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields. Electronic components are mostly industrial products, available in a singular form and are not ...

industry, working in Europe, the United States and Asia. She was managing director of Macro Group, and then appointed

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

of the Asia/Pacific sector of

Arrow Electronics Arrow Electronics is an American ''Fortune'' 500 company headquartered in Centennial, Colorado. The company specializes in distribution and value added services relating to electronic components and computer products. The company was ranked N ...

from 2002 to 2006. She was chief executive officer of

Premier Farnell Premier Farnell Ltd is a distributor of products for electronic system design, maintenance and repair throughout Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, with operations in 36 countries and trading in over 100. In October 2016, the firm was purc ...

, a global electronics distribution business, from 2006 until 2012. She became CEO of

on 30 July 2012, succeeding

Manny Fontenla-Novoa Manny Fontenla-Novoa (born 13 May 1954) is a Spanish-British businessman, the former chief executive of Thomas Cook AG, who then merged with MyTravel Group to form Thomas Cook Group from 2003 until his resignation in August 2011. He has been pres ...

who was CEO from 2003. She obtained this position by

cold calling Cold calling is the solicitation of business from potential customers who have had no prior contact with the salesperson conducting the call. It is an attempt to convince potential customers to purchase either the salesperson's product or service ...

chairman

Frank Meysman François Louis Virginie Meysman (born 6 April 1952) is a businessman best known for being the Chairman of Thomas Cook Group at the time of its collapse. Early life He was born in Brussels, Belgium. He trained at the Vlekho in Brussels. He also ...

. During her time as CEO, Green helped grow Thomas Cook Group's market worth from £148m to more than £2bn and helped increase the company's share price 829pc. In November 2014, it was announced that Green was leaving with immediate effect, and that

Peter Fankhauser Peter Fankhauser (born 1960) is a Swiss businessman, who was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Thomas Cook Group from 2014 until its collapse in 2019. Early life and career Born in November 1960, Fankhauser has a doctorate from the Uni ...

, the COO would take over as CEO. Following the announcement of Green's departure, the company's share value dropped by more than £350m. Despite the deaths of Christianne and Robert Shepherd occurring in 2006 before she was appointed, Green announced in June 2015 that she was donating a third of her £5.7m Thomas Cook bonus, £1.9m, to a charity chosen by the parents of two children who died while on holiday. The Group was highly criticised by the coroner in the 2015 inquest – which ruled the pair were unlawfully killed from carbon monoxide poisoning in Corfu in 2006 – for its treatment of the family, which included the period of Green's tenure. In October 2019, the Parliamentary Select Committee hearing and report had no negative input on her tenure as CEO and stated that Thomas Cook's recovery may have continued had she been allowed to complete the transformation she started. IBM appointed Green as the head of the IBM Watson Internet of Things business unit in December 2015. The company is based in Armonk, NY. As the general manager of Watson Customer Engagement, Watson Internet of Things and Education at IBM, Green was responsible for driving innovation-led growth, according to IBM. Green completed her nine-year non-executive director tenure of

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...

. She was listed for three consecutive years since 2017 on the "HERoes Women Role Model List - Champions of Women in Business". In 2016, Green won the Women in Technology Institute award, and was inducted into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame. In 2017, ''

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

'' named Green one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business for her work alerting businesses to power and potential of

IBM Watson IBM Watson is a question-answering computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language, developed in IBM's DeepQA project by a research team led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Watson was named after IBM's founder ...

. In February 2019, Green was appointed as a board member to the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and completed her term in January 2021. In September 2019, she was listed #30 on Fortune's Most Powerful Women International List. In 2019, she was recognised by

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

as a LinkedIn Influencer, and in 2020 she was announced as a LinkedIn Top Voice. Since 2015, Green has sat on the Kings Business School Advisory Board, and in 2020 was named executive chair of Mission Beyond.

Personal life

She lives in

Summertown, Oxford Summertown in North Oxford is a suburb of Oxford, England. Summertown is a one-mile square residential area, north of St Giles, the boulevard leading out of Oxford's city centre. Summertown is home to several independent schools and the city's m ...

. She married Graham Clarkson in 2004 in Oxfordshire, and the couple have two adult children. Green received an OBE in the

2010 Birthday Honours The 2010 Birthday Honours for the Commonwealth realms were announced to celebrate the Queen's Birthday on 7 June 2010 in New Zealand, on 12 June 2010 in the United Kingdom, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Sai ...

. She is a devotee of

hatha yoga Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some haṭha ...

and reads several books a week, claiming that indulging in literature delivers an escape and relaxation away from business. Green has previously claimed that she only sleeps for around four hours a day. In February 2013, she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by ''

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by A ...

'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

References

External links

Thomas Cook bio

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Harriet 1961 births Alumni of King's College London British corporate directors English chief executives IBM employees Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Cotswold District People from Oxford Living people