- Stuart Rose
"For the American retail executive with a similar name, see
Stuart Alan Rose ."Sir Stuart Alan Ransom Rose (born
March 17 ,1949 ,Gosport ) is theExecutive Chairman of the British retailerMarks & Spencer . He was knighted in 2008.Background
Stuart Rose’s grandparents were White Russian émigrés who fled to
China after the1917 revolution . His real family name is Bryantzeff — his father, ex-RAF and civil servant, changed it. [ [http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/article788500.ece "Interview: Andrew Davidson: Full Marks for Stuart Rose"] . "The Sunday Times". January 15, 2006.] His family lived in acaravan inWarwickshire before moving to Tanzania when his father had a posting with the civil service. Rose went to the catholic [http://www.flickr.com/photos/85154321@N00/261767134 St Joseph's Convent] School inDar es Salaam until he was 11,Tanzania and the independentBootham School in York. His first job was as an administration assistant at theBBC . His mother committed suicide when he was in his twenties. He lives in centralLondon andSuffolk . He married Jennifer Cook in 1973 in St Marylebone, and they have a son and daughter.Career
Stuart Rose first joined
Marks & Spencer in 1972, as a management trainee. Rose remained withMarks & Spencer until 1989, when he joined the Burton Group as Chief Executive in 1994. The Burton Group demerged forming the Arcadia andDebenhams businesses.In 1997 he joined Argos as Chief Executive, where he was appointed to defend the company from a takeover bid from the catalogue giant,
Great Universal Stores (GUS). GUS did however take control of Argos, but it has been reportedFact|date=August 2007 that Rose succeeded in negotiating an increased price for the retailer.In a turbulent time in its history, Rose became the Chief Executive of Booker plc, where he oversaw the merger of the company with Iceland.
Rose joined the
Arcadia Group in 2000 as Chief Executive and left in 2002 following its acquisition. Rose turned around the fortunes of theArcadia Group , and sold the group for over £800m, netting himself around £25m as part of the deal.He was appointed to the position of
Chief Executive ofMarks & Spencer in May 2004, aged 56 and subsequently fought off several takeover bids by Phillip Green for the Group. Rose appeared to be rejuvenating theMarks & Spencer Group as he did at Arcadia. In January 2007, he was named the "2006 Business Leader of the Year" by theWorld Leadership Forum for his efforts in restoring the fortunes of Marks and Spencer.He was knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours and was appointed president of Business in the Community on 1 January 2008.On 10 March it was reported that Sir Stuart will become Executive Chairman of Marks & Spencer from 1 June 2008. [ [http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=8269276&symbol=MKS.L Business Week Profile] ] However, in the light of a recent profits warning, which sparked an unprecedented thirty per cent-plus plunge in the company's shares, this appointment has caused some concern to many shareholders. [Irish Times, 9 July 2008, page 19, Business Today] . Nevertheless, they voted to reappoint him at their annual meeting on 9 July 2008.
References
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