Archie Norman

Archie Norman currently chairs Lazard & Co. Ltd and Aurigo Management Partners. He is also Dep. Chairman, Coles Group Ltd in Australia and is on the Board or is an Advisor to a number of other private companies.

Having been the youngest ever Partner at McKinsey, Archie was one of the three founders of Kingfisher Plc in the 1980s and as FD, led it to become Britain’s leading general merchandise retailer. In 1991 he led the turnaround of Asda. After eight years the business was sold to Wal-Mart for an eight times multiple of the starting share price. In 2002, he acquired Energis and on behalf of the creditor banks over four years refocused and rebuilt the business before agreeing a sale to Cable and Wireless for double the original enterprise value.

In November 2007 he was appointed Deputy Chairman of Coles Group, which became (at the time) the largest turnaround project in global retailing. Since that time Coles has more than doubled its profits and outperformed its main rival for 60 consecutive months. He is also an advisor to the Board of Wesfarmers Limited and a Director of Target Limited.

To turnaround undervalued/unfashionable businesses on behalf of investors, Archie founded Aurigo Management Partners, which in 2007 acquired HSS, the UK’s second largest equipment hire business. It was sold in October 2012.

In 2010 Archie took over as Chairman of ITV. He restructured the Board and recruited a new executive team to lead a five year transformation plan. Operating performance has improved and profit before tax has trebled. In 2013 he became Chairman of Lazard in London and sits on the Deputy Chairman’s Committee for Lazard worldwide.

Uniquely amongst Footsie 100 Chairmen, Archie served as an MP for eight years, including as CEO of the Conservative Party and as a member of the Shadow Cabinet. He led the first stages of the reform of the Conservative Party after the 1997 electoral defeat and rose to become the opposite number to the Deputy Prime Minister. Subsequently he founded the think tank “Policy Exchange.”

Archie has served as a non-executive director on the Boards of British Rail, Railtrack and Geest. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MA from Cambridge University. He is on the Board of the NIESR, has Honorary Doctorates from York University and Leeds Metropolitan University, was a Director of the Judge Institute, has been elected to the Marketing Society Hall of Fame, and been voted Retailer of the Year and Yorkshire Businessman of the Year. In December 2010 he was awarded the Institute of Turnaround Professionals Lifetime Achievement Award.