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Anthony Habgood

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Sir Anthony Habgood
Born
Anthony John Habgood

(1946-11-08) 8 November 1946 (age 78)
Norfolk, England
EducationGresham's School
Alma materGonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Carnegie Mellon University
OccupationBusinessman
Years active1970–2022
Spouse
Nancy Atkinson
​
(m. 1974)​
Children3

Sir Anthony John Habgood (born 8 November 1946)[1] is a British businessman. From 1991 to 2005, he was chief executive of Bunzl. He was also the chairman of Whitbread from 2005 to 2014, RELX Group and of the Court of the Bank of England. He has been described in the Financial Times as "the City's go-to grandee."[2]

Early life

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Anthony John Habgood was born on 8 November 1946, the son of John Michael Habgood MC and his wife, Margaret Diana Middleton, née Dalby.[3][4] He was educated at Gresham's School, Norfolk.[5] He has a bachelor's degree from Cambridge University (Gonville and Caius College), and a master's degree in industrial administration from Carnegie Mellon University.[3]

Career

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Habgood joined Boston Consulting Group in 1970, after a summer job there,[6] and became a director in 1977.[7] He worked in Boston, Tokyo, Munich and London. From 1981 to 1986 he was Managing Partner of BCG Ltd in London and a member of the executive committee of BCG Inc.

He joined Tootal Group plc in 1986, and became Chief Executive in 1991.[8]

From 1991 to 2005, Habgood was chief executive, then chairman of Bunzl, growing turnover from continuing operations from £500 million to £2.9 billion, and improving profits by a factor of 34, and "is widely credited with transforming Bunzl".[9]

Habgood was also chairman of

  • Whitbread plc from 2005 to 2014[10]
  • Mölnlycke Health Care from 2006 to 2007 while it was owned by the private equity house APAX Partners.
  • RELX Group (formerly Reed Elsevier), a multinational information and analytics company, from June 2009 until 2021.[11][12]
  • Preqin Holding Limited from 2011 to 2022.

Past non-executive directorships include NatWest Bank plc,[13] Powergen plc[14] and Marks and Spencer plc.[15]

He was senior non-executive director of Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust from 2006 until March 2013, and was chair of Norwich Research Park between March 2013 and March 2016.[16][17]

Habgood was Chair of Court at the Bank of England between July 2014 and June 2018.[18][8]

Recognition

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Habgood was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to UK Industry.[19]

Views

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Habgood has said that

  • businesses should focus on customers.[20]
  • a key factor in business strategy is determining which elements of a group portfolio have good growth characteristics, and focusing on these.[21][6]

Habgood has mentioned Christopher Hogg as the chairman he most admired,[22] and Michael Brearley (the England cricket captain between 1977 and 1981) as a leadership hero.[23]

Personal life

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On 29 May 1974, Habgood married Nancy Atkinson, the daughter of Ray Nelson Atkinson of San Mateo, California, US.[3] They have three children, and split their time between Chelsea and Norfolk.[5][3]

References

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  1. ^ "Agenda Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders 2009" (PDF). Reed Elsevier NV. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 December 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  2. ^ Guthrie, Jonathan (18 March 2014). "BoE inquisitor job shows Anthony Habgood is go-to grandee". Archived from the original on 6 May 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d Lucy Hume (5 October 2017). Debrett's People of Today 2017. Debrett's. pp. 1925–26. ISBN 978-1-9997670-3-7. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  4. ^ "Entry Information". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  5. ^ a b Reece, Damian (6 October 2011). "The Interview: A cool customer with a track record of giving a warm feeling to shareholders". The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  6. ^ a b Lynch, Andrew (31 March 2019). "NED Award for FTSE 100: Sir Anthony Habgood". www.thetimes.com.
  7. ^ "Anthony Habgood profile". Oxford University. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  8. ^ a b "Sir Anthony Habgood". www.bankofengland.co.uk. 25 June 2014.
  9. ^ O'Regan, Nicholas; Ghobadian, Abby (1 January 2010). "A serial successful strategic transformer of businesses: An interview with Anthony Habgood, Chairman of Whitbread plc, Reed Elsevier plc and former CEO and Chairman, Bunzl plc". Journal of Strategy and Management. 3 (1): 72–78. doi:10.1108/17554251011019422. ISSN 1755-425X.
  10. ^ Walsh, Dominic (17 June 2014). "The Times: Whitbread chairman Anthony Habgood leaves little room for improvement". The Times. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  11. ^ Milne, Richard (28 June 2010). "View from the Top: Anthony Habgood, Chairman, RELX Group". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 6 May 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  12. ^ "RELX announces new Chair". www.relx.com.
  13. ^ "Nat.Westminster Bank Changes to the Board of Directors". investegate.co.uk. 6 March 2000. Retrieved 6 March 2001.
  14. ^ "Powergen Annual Report 2000" (PDF). Powergen. Retrieved 2 March 2001.
  15. ^ "Tender Offer by Cazenove & Co. Ltd to purchase Ordinary Shares (including Ordinary Shares represented by American Depositary Shares) of Marks and Spencer Group plc up to a maximum value of £2.3 billion - Notice of Extraordinary General Meeting" (PDF). vernimmen.com. 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
  16. ^ "FTSE 100 company Chair appointed to Norwich Research Park". bbsrc.ac.uk. 6 March 2013. Archived from the original on 6 October 2013. Retrieved 26 July 2014.
  17. ^ "UEA Vice Chancellor Appointed Chair of Norwich Research Park". norwichresearchpark.com. 12 April 2016. Archived from the original on 20 June 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  18. ^ "Three senior appointments to the Bank of England" (PDF) (Press release). Bank of England. 18 March 2014. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  19. ^ "No. 62150". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2017. p. N2.
  20. ^ Hill, Andrew (7 March 2021). "Sir Anthony Habgood: Chair's role 'is to raise the game of the executive'".
  21. ^ Lynch, Andrew (31 March 2019). "NED Award for FTSE 100: Sir Anthony Habgood". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
  22. ^ https://www.ft.com/content/53d0655a-cefe-11de-8a4b-00144feabdc0
  23. ^ https://www.ft.com/content/6411fa33-5ba0-41a7-b46a-17f5df1481fc
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Business positions
Preceded by Chairman of Whitbread
2005–2014 		Succeeded by
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