Paul Polman: business leadership and the sustainability agenda
The Dutch executive led Unilever from 2009 to 2019, advancing a corporate strategy that linked growth with environmental and social aims.
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2,879 entries
James Palumbo and the making of Ministry of Sound
How a South London nightclub grew into a music brand spanning recorded music, radio and fitness.
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Kate Swann: leading WHSmith and SSP through change
The Bradford graduate led two major businesses, from high-street retail to food and drink in travel locations.
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Guy Hands: private equity, Terra Firma and the EMI gamble
The English financier built Nomura’s Principal Finance Group before founding Terra Firma. His career spans major acquisitions, a costly dispute over EMI and substantial support for Mansfield College, Oxford.
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James Dyson: the engineer who rethought the vacuum cleaner
From early inventions to the bagless cleaner, Dyson built a career around redesigning familiar objects and supporting engineering education.
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Richard Reed: Building Innocent Drinks and backing new ventures
The Innocent Drinks co-founder helped turn a market-stall idea into an international business, then backed other entrepreneurs through JamJar Investments.
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Stephen Rubin and the growth of Pentland Group
As chairman, Rubin led a company whose portfolio included Speedo, Berghaus and other sporting brands.
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Jim Ratcliffe: building INEOS and a British industrial footprint
The chemical engineer founded INEOS in Hampshire and expanded it into a global group, while investing in British manufacturing, vehicles and sport.
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Alex Chesterman and the digital reshaping of property search
The Zoopla founder brought listings, price histories and local information together online, then turned his attention to the used-car market.
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Emma Harrison and the rise of A4e
The businesswoman became a public face of welfare-to-work provision; her tenure at A4e also brought scrutiny of public contracts, payments and accountability.
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Tom Singh: building New Look from Taunton
Born in Punjab and educated in Wales, Singh founded a British fashion retailer in Somerset in 1969 and later invested in online clothing sales.
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Ann Gloag: Stagecoach co-founder and charity campaigner
The Perth-born businesswoman helped build a major transport group and has supported medical work for women affected by obstetric fistula.
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Julie Deane and the Cambridge Satchel Company
How a Cambridge venture begun with £600 brought a traditional school satchel to a wider fashion audience.
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Brian Souter: building Stagecoach and its wider reach
The Scottish accountant helped turn a bus operation launched in 1980 into an international transport group, while his public life also brought sharp controversy.
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Charles Dunstone: building a market for mobile phones
From selling handsets out of a London flat, Dunstone built Carphone Warehouse into a major European retailer and helped establish TalkTalk.
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Michelle Mone: business, public life and the PPE Medpro controversy
From a Glasgow lingerie start-up to the House of Lords, Mone’s career combines commercial ambition with a public record later overshadowed by the PPE Medpro affair.
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Mike Ashley: retail expansion and Newcastle United
A Maidenhead sports shop grew into a national retailer, while Ashley’s ownership of Newcastle United made him a central figure in English football.
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Tony Pidgley: building Berkeley Group
From a small haulage business to one of Britain’s largest housebuilders, Pidgley made Berkeley Group the defining enterprise of his career.
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Simon Wolfson: leading Next and entering public life
The Next chief executive became one of the youngest leaders of a FTSE 100 company, and later joined the House of Lords.
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Richard Desmond: building and selling a media empire
From music publishing to Channel 5, Desmond assembled a varied portfolio whose businesses ranged from celebrity magazines to adult television.
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David and Frederick Barclay: business, newspapers and the Ritz
The London-born twins built a far-reaching business empire, held influential British newspapers and owned the Ritz. Their story also includes disputed deals, public controversy and the sale of their best-known assets.
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Rowan Gormley and the Naked Wines model
The South African-born entrepreneur founded Naked Wines after an earlier venture with Virgin Wines, building an online business around relationships between customers and winemakers.
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John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley: BP and beyond
The Cambridge-educated engineer led BP through a period of expansion and diversification, while promoting investment in alternative energy and later taking on prominent roles in public life.
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John Lewis: the draper behind a British retail institution
The Oxford Street shopkeeper built a major department-store business. The employee-owned partnership associated with his name took shape under his son, John Spedan Lewis.
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Warren Buffett: the investor’s British footprint
The American investor’s Berkshire Hathaway backed Tesco and acquired an interest in Iscar, but the scale of his wider effect on Britain is harder to establish.
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James Goldsmith: financier, corporate raider and political maverick
A French-British businessman built a global fortune through acquisitions, then founded the Referendum Party to campaign for a vote on Britain’s place in Europe.
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Duncan Bannatyne: from ice-cream vans to Dragons’ Den
The Scottish entrepreneur built businesses in care, fitness and hospitality before becoming a familiar face on British television.
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Deborah Meaden: business, television and a West Country legacy
From an export agency and family holiday business to Dragons’ Den, Meaden’s career has connected entrepreneurship with a prominent place in British television.
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Terry Leahy: the Tesco chief who made customer knowledge a strategy
From a Liverpool childhood to the leadership of Britain’s largest retailer, Leahy reshaped Tesco through loyalty data, international growth and a broader retail offer.
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Peter Jones: business ventures, television and enterprise education
From mobile-phone distribution to Dragons’ Den, Peter Jones has built a public career in business and enterprise education.
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Philip Green and the rise and fall of Arcadia
The retail executive built a vast British fashion group around familiar high-street names. Its collapse, and the controversy over BHS, made his record a more complicated story.
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John Hargreaves and the rise of Matalan
The Liverpool-born entrepreneur built a UK discount clothing and homeware chain from a single Preston store.
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Alan Sugar: Amstrad, business and the boardroom
From selling car aerials from a van to building a household name, Alan Sugar made consumer technology and business competition part of British public life.
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Stelios Haji-Ioannou: building the easy brand
The British-Cypriot entrepreneur founded easyJet in 1995, then extended his business interests into shipping and a family of travel and leisure ventures.
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Tim Martin: building a pub group with a distinct identity
The founder of J D Wetherspoon combined rapid expansion with a recognisable approach to pubs—and became a prominent voice in British political debate.
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J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter, Pottermore and Lumos
The author of the seven-book Harry Potter series also extended its world through digital publishing and founded a charity campaigning for family-based care for children.
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William Lever: soap, industry and the limits of philanthropy
The Lancashire grocer built a soap-making business, a model village and a public legacy whose achievements sit alongside controversies over workers’ lives and colonial labour.
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John Cadbury: cocoa, conscience and a Birmingham business
The Quaker founder built a cocoa business in Birmingham and pursued causes ranging from temperance to workers’ rights.
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James Dyson: the engineer who rethought the vacuum cleaner
From the Ballbarrow to cyclonic vacuum technology, James Dyson built a design-led business after manufacturers turned down his bagless cleaner.
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Anita Roddick and the business of ethical change
The Body Shop founder made social and environmental causes part of her company’s public identity, and helped bring ethical consumerism into the beauty business.
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