Marketing dream team

It would be a talented marketer indeed who is credited with having achieved genuine market success, making a real contribution to marketing, and influencing others, especially in terms of innovation and creativity. And it would have to be an even more talented marketer who is rated as such by his or her peers.

Tesco marketing director Tim Mason is just that man, according to research commissioned by Marketing Week and conducted by Market Management Research.

Players within the marketing field have voted Mason the top player in a super league table of marketing talent. In second place is Angus Porter, Abbey’s customer propositions director, while in third place is Niall FitzGerald, Unilever’s joint chairman and chief executive officer.

Researchers conducted 550 telephone interviews for the study, sponsored by Grey London, asking marketers to name their marketing idol based on the above criteria. The result is a 30-strong super league of marketers. Separately, interviewees, who were spread across 11 sectors including cars, retail and leisure, were also asked to nominate someone from their own sector whom they thought best fitted the description. This data was used to compile league tables of marketers for each sector (page 28).

Talent Super League

Name Company Category % of interviewed who voted for candidate 1 Tim Mason Tesco Retail 9.45% 2 Angus Porter Abbey Finance 7.82% 3 Niall FitzGerald Unilever FMCG Food & Drink 7.64% 4 Sir Richard Branson Virgin Various 7.45% 5 Stelios Haji-Ioannou easyJet Leisure 5.82% 6 Michael OLeary Ryanair Leisure 5.45% 7 Chris de Lapuente P&G FMCG Food & Drink 5.27% 8 Alice Avis M&S Retail 4.91% 9 James Dyson Dyson Durables 4.00% =10 Chris Pilling Asda Retail 3.64% =10 Sir Christopher Gent Vodafone Communications 3.64% 12 Allan Leighton Royal Mail Retail 3.27% 13 Rupert Murdoch News Corporation Publishing 2.91% =14 Julie Leivers GSK FMCG Food & Drink 2.73% =14 Philip Green Bhs Retail 2.73% =16 Michael Dell Dell Computers Communications 2.55% =16 Anita Roddick The Body Shop Retail 2.55% 18 Simon Kelner The Independent Publishing 2.36% =19 Sly Bailey Trinity Mirror Publishing 2.18% =19 Tim Waterstone Waterstone’s Retail 2.18% 21 Bill Gates Microsoft Communications 2.18% =22 Hans Streberg Electrolux Durables 2.00% =22 Martha Lane Fox Lastminute.com Communications 2.00% =24 Andrew Blowers Churchill Insurance Finance 1.64% =24 Peter Davis Sainsbury’s Retail 1.64% =24 Tim Martin JD Wetherspoon FMCG Food & Drink 1.64% =24 Brian Souter Stagecoach Leisure 1.64% =28 Simon Gulliford Barclays Finance 1.45% =28 Dianne Thompson Camelot Leisure 1.45% =28 Larry Page Google Communications 1.45% =28 Terry Leahy Tesco Retail 1.45%

Marketing Management Research

Join the Dottys

Overall, marketers were clear about who is their marketing idol – Mason took one in ten of votes from those interviewed.

The marketer behind the Tesco Clubcard and the supermarket’s Dotty advertising attracted nominations not only from retail marketers but from across the board. Whether Mason will retain his position when Marketing Week next conducts this survey is open to debate, but marketers consider that he is a man on the rise. Indeed he is considered to be one of the candidates tipped to succeed Sir Terry Leahy as chief executive when he decides that the time is right to step down.

Closely behind is a man marketers also consider to be in the ascendant – Porter, who was voted for by 7.82 per cent of those interviewed. The former managing director, consumer division at BT Retail may have picked up votes due to the high profile rebranding of Abbey National as Abbey.

Third in line, FitzGerald, had a tough time last year when Unilever’s Path to Growth targets were hit by poor sales of its Slim-Fast brand as dieters experimented with the alternative low-carbohydrate Atkins Diet. It is not surprising, therefore, that marketers feel he may have reached his peak, though he still took 7.64 per cent of the votes.

Marketers also felt that the next two contenders on the list have reached their peak. Despite his Virgin Mobile business, Sir Richard Branson, with 7.45 per cent of the vote, has yet to repeat the success of Virgin Atlantic. Likewise, Stelios Haji-Ioannou – who followed Branson’s example by extending his easy brand into numerous markets – has yet to hit on a business that is as successful as easyJet. The entrepreneur comes in at fifth place with 5.82 per cent of the votes, just ahead of Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary, who, by contrast, is considered to be a marketing talent on the rise.

High climbing

The top 30 list of marketing talent has a number of other risers – those whom marketers believe have yet to reach the peak of their career. Among them are Procter & Gamble UK vice-president and managing director Chris de Lapuente; Marks & Spencer director of marketing and e-commerce Alice Avis; GlaxoSmithKline vice-president of marketing and innovation for Ribena and Lucozade Julie Leivers; Barclays group marketing and communications director Simon Gulliford; and Asda marketing director Chris Pilling.

Those considered to be in decline include Sir Christopher Gent, who stepped down as Vodafone’s chief executive last year; media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who is busy plotting his succession at News Corporation; and Waterstone’s founder Tim Waterstone.

The high profile of some sectors, such as retail, and of individuals more known for their business management and entrepreneurial skills than marketing, such as Philip Green, no doubt have a bearing on the league table results.

But even where marketers have named someone in their own sector whom they believe to have made a major contribution through marketing, business leaders and those in top management not directly involved in day-to-day marketing feature strongly. Surprisingly, in some cases the people named have been in the news for bringing the axe down on marketing departments.

This may be because marketers aspire to get into top management or because they value entrepreneurial and visionary skills highly. In some sectors, those who have made a contribution in the past through marketing but have now retired pick up votes, for instance former Jaguar global marketing director Phil Cazaly. This may be because of their high profile and the fact that existing marketers are still inspired by what they did.

Tesco’s Mason also tops the retail league table, with an enormous 56 per cent of the vote. Marks & Spencer’s Avis comes in second and Asda’s Pilling in third place.

Heading the financial services league table is Abbey’s Porter, who despite having moved into the sector only last year, takes 40 per cent of votes.

In the food and drink category, P&G’s de Lapuente is interestingly just ahead of Unilever’s FitzGerald, a reversal of their positions in the overall table of marketing talent. But both are way ahead of the rest of the pack, with 22 and 20 per cent of the votes respectively.

In the league table for cosmetics, personal care and clothing brands, Garnier UK general manager Michael Tanguy leads with 12 per cent of the votes.

Headling talent

Magazine publishing entrepreneur Felix Dennis, who built up his empire from computer magazines to one that now includes lads’ magazine Maxim, tops the media table. Simon Kelner, editor of The Independent, is a surprising second. His high positioning is possibly on the back of the newspaper’s launch of a compact edition. Racing ahead in the car sector is John Sanders, former global sales and marketing director for MG Rover, with 22 per cent. His nearest rival is ex-Jaguar chief Cazaly, with 12 per cent.

Durables is headed by inventor James Dyson. He took 22 per cent of the votes and beat Electrolux president and chief executive Hans Stråberg, who had to settle with second place.

EasyJet founder Haji-Ioannou comes top in the leisure and travel sector, just ahead of Ryanair’s O’Leary. Under-represented in the overall league table, the communications and IT category is headed by Hugh Barton, HP marketing director of services for UK & Ireland, while charities is topped by Barnardo’s director of marketing Andrew Nebel.

British Gas director of marketing and strategy Nick Smith heads the utilities and power sector, coming just ahead of his colleague Simon Waugh, global marketing director for British Gas’s holding company Centrica.

THE TOP 30 IN PROFILE

1 – Tim Mason, marketing director, Tesco, and chairman, Tesco.com

Tim Mason, the man responsible for Tesco Clubcard and the Dotty “Every Little Helps” advertising, has been with Tesco since 1982 when he joined as a product manager for dry grocery from Wall’s Meat. Educated at Stowe public school and a Warwick University graduate, Mason rose through the ranks, with stints in trading and as a regional managing director, becoming board marketing director in 1995 (MW February 10, 1995). Married to the daughter of former Tesco chairman Lord MacLaurin of Knebworth, Mason now commands a salary package of more than £1.5m, and was recently tipped for the post of Boots chief executive, which eventually went to Asda’s Richard Baker. The industry is now asking what’s next for Mason, who is tipped as one of the candidates to succeed Sir Terry Leahy as Tesco chief executive when Leahy decides to bow out.

2 – Angus Porter, customer propositions director, Abbey

Angus Porter has presided over the rebrand and relaunch of Abbey National as Abbey, after being hired by chief executive Luqman Arnold to spearhead a marketing-led recovery for the bank (MW June 12, 2003), which recorded a £1bn loss last year. On the board as customer propositions director, Porter has embarked on an ambitious project to develop new approaches to high street banking, simplifying communications and using the marketing techniques that he used while managing director, consumer division at BT Retail. At BT, he was responsible for the rebrand that axed the “trumpet-blowing” logo. Before that, when he worked at Mars, Porter was responsible for the launch of Celebrations and the rebranding of Opal Fruits as Starburst.

3 – Niall Fitzgerald, joint chairman and chief executive, Unilever

FitzGerald has held a host of positions since joining Unilever in 1967, although his appointment as financial director in 1987 marked his entry into Unilever leadership proper. In recent years, FitzGerald has overseen Unilever’s five-year “Path to Growth” strategy, which has seen the company divesting non-core brands to focus on a select number of global franchises. Among those brands already sold are Brut, Bestfoods’ Ambrosia and Unilever’s oral care brands. Among many other responsibilities, FitzGerald is also on the board of Reuters as a non-executive director.

4 – Sir Richard Branson, chairman, Virgin Group

Virgin Group chairman Sir Richard Branson has kept his finger in the financial services pie as chairman of Virgin Money, a joint venture with HHG, formerly AMP.

5 – Stelios Haji-Ioannou, chairman, easyGroup

Stelios, the “serial entrepreneur” as he calls himself, pioneered the lucrative low-cost airline market with the launch of easyJet in 1995. While he still has an 18 per cent stake in the airline, he is no longer directly involved and it is not part of his easyGroup. Other ventures, such as easyCar and easyInternetcafe, have not reached the level of success of easyJet, but Stelios still believes there are a number of opportunities for the yield management model in other markets. EasyCinema launched last year and easyCruise, easyBus, easyDorm and easyPizza are all being lined up. It is suggested that easyGroup’s biggest marketing asset is Stelios himself, with his populist approach and ability to shake up established business practices.

6 – Michael O’leary, chief executive, Ryanair

Michael O’Leary, the boss of easyJet’s great rival, Ryanair, has piloted the company into becoming the largest low-cost carrier in Europe after acquiring Buzz. When measured by net profit margins, Ryanair is the most profitable airline in Europe. The blunt-speaking and recently married airline boss tears into rivals such as British Airways with vigour and is personally worth more than E400m (£275m). However, he is not resting on his laurels and ancillary services have been developed based on the company’s online expertise. These include Ryanair Telecom and partnerships with hotel and car hire companies.

7 – Chris De Lapuente, vice-president and managing director, Procter & Gamble UK and Ireland

De Lapuente started his career at P&G in 1983 as brand assistant for Fairy Liquid in the UK, and then held various brand and marketing positions across P&G’s household goods portfolio. He served as marketing director for Spain, Turkey and Germany before returning to the UK in 1998 as managing director for the UK and Ireland (MW August 13, 1998). Under his leadership, P&G has overhauled its corporate structure to challenge Unilever, bringing in a number of innovations across its laundry and health and beauty portfolios such as the Pantene relaunch and Ariel Liqui-Tabs. He also oversaw the merger of the Wella haircare business, bought last year.

8 – Alice Avis, director of marketing and e-commerce, Marks & Spencer

Alice Avis has kept a remarkably low profile since her appointment by Marks & Spencer at the beginning of last year (MW January 8, 2003) after a spell running her own strategic marketing consultancy. The former global brand director for Diageo brand Johnnie Walker effectively replaced Alan McWalter as chief marketer, but unlike him she does not have a board position. At Diageo, she claims to have been responsible for reversing Johnnie Walker’s declining sales with the help of the Keep on Walking campaign. Before joining the drinks giant, Avis began her career in account management at BMP, now DDB London. After Diageo, she was seduced by the dot-com world and joined betting start-up Flutter.com as marketing director.

9 – James Dyson, chairman, Dyson

Frustrated with his vacuum cleaner while renovating his country house, James Dyson, a trained furniture and interior designer, was determined to invent a cleaner with constant suction. In 1983, after five years and 5,127 prototypes, the bagless cleaner was born. His first product, however, the DC01 Dual Cyclone, did not make it to the shops until 1993. Dyson’s product became the UK’s top-selling vacuum cleaner within two years. The success of the product, whose development nearly bankrupted its inventor, owes much to Dyson’s perseverance and belief in his invention. The firm has shunned traditional marketing techniques, relying on editorial coverage and word of mouth. Nor did Dyson’s inventive streak stop with the vacuum cleaner – his company launched the Contrarotator washing machine in 2000.

10 – Chris Pilling, marketing director, Asda

Chris Pilling, a former Procter & Gamble marketer, worked at a variety of companies before being made Asda’s marketing director in 2002 (MW May 2, 2002). He has stuck with the retailer’s agency Publicis and its Real Lives campaign, but introduced a sprinkling of stardust to the store’s Christmas campaign by using actress Julie Walters as a fairy godmother. Before joining Asda, Pilling was customer marketing director at Telewest Broadband, where he helped to rebrand the cable company and its regional subsidiaries. Before that, he was UK and Ireland general manager for marketing at British Airways.

11 – Sir Christopher Gent, former chief executive, Vodafone

Having been knighted for his services to the telecoms industry in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in June 2001, Gent led the business through a dynamic period as far as marketing is concerned. He took up the position of chief executive in January, 1997 and oversaw substantial growth in a highly competitive market. Gent joined the Vodafone Group as managing director of Vodafone in January 1985, when the mobile phone service was first launched. He resigned from the company last year and has since been linked with the post of chairman of the new single ITV, which comes into existence on February 2.

12 – Allan Leighton, chairman, Royal Mail

A former chief executive of Asda, Leighton has turned himself into a serial director. Chairman of Royal Mail, non-executive director at BSkyB and deputy chairman at Leeds United are just a few of the posts he has held. Although financially well rewarded, the lifestyle has not been all plain sailing. Leighton has had to deal with wildcat strikes at Royal Mail from employees objecting to new cost-saving working practices, a shareholder revolt at BSkyB over the appointment of Rupert Murdoch’s son James as chief executive, and major losses at Leeds. Leighton’s earlier career included stints as marketing director for Mars, Pedigree and Asda.

13 – Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive, News Corporation

Already the world’s most prominent media mogul, Murdoch has been busy expanding his empire even further, in particular through News Corporation’s recent acquisition of DirecTV, fulfilling his dream of creating a global satellite TV network. Murdoch last year came under fire for paving the way for his son James to become head of BSkyB. Now in his 70s, Murdoch is busy putting plans in place to ensure that the long-term management of News Corp, with assets including The Times and The Sun, remains within his family.

14 – Julie Leivers, vice-president of marketing and innovation for Ribena and Lucozade, GlaxoSmithKline

Leivers was appointed to her newly created position in September 2003 from McCain Foods, where she was marketing director (MW October 2, 2003). Leivers now oversees brand marketing and innovation for Ribena, Lucozade and Horlicks. During her seven years at McCain, she was responsible for extending the company’s range beyond chips to include products such as Home Fries, Home Roasts and Pizza Fingers. Leivers is a former marketing controller for Coca-Cola & Schweppes Beverages and a former group product manager for PepsiCo Foods.

15 – Philip Green, retail entrepreneur

Billionaire Philip Green has been wheeling and dealing in retail companies for the past two decades. His latest acquisitions, Bhs in 2000 and Top Shop parent company Arcadia two years later, have given him a 12.6 per cent share of the UK women’s clothing market – ahead of Marks & Spencer and Next. But the flamboyant deal-maker pulled back from submitting a bid for Safeway last year. Public school-educated Londoner Green began working as an importer at the age of 16, going on to buy and sell companies such as Jean Jeanie. He celebrated his 50th birthday in style by flying 200 guests to a five-star hotel in Cyprus for a three-day party that included performances by Tom Jones and Rod Stewart. What will be next on Green’s shopping list?

16 – Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive, Dell

Michael Dell founded Dell in 1984 with $1,000 (about £750 at the time) and an unprecedented idea – to sell computer systems directly to customers. The company employs about 44,300 people worldwide with cumulative revenues of almost $40bn (£22bn) for the past year. With the company’s addition to the Fortune 500 in 1992, Dell became the youngest company chief executive to earn a ranking on the list and is now the longest-tenured chief executive in the computer industry. Last year, Dell announced it was moving into consumer electronics, diversifying into the digital music player and TV sectors.

17 – Anita Roddick, co-founder, The Body Shop

For a time Anita Roddick was a brilliant alchemist, mixing ethics and entrepreneurial zeal to create a global Body Shop empire. She hit upon a popular mix of affordable natural beauty products made with ingredients not tested on animals and presented in environmental friendly packaging, products that have been widely copied elsewhere. More than 20 years after the first shop opened in Brighton in 1976, the group was hit by a profits slump and Roddick was forced by the City to hand over day-to-day operations to new management. Later, in 2002, she stepped down from her position as co-chairman to take on a marketing consultancy role. Roddick was one of the first to recognise the importance of social responsibility in marketing and ran various ethical campaigns through her stores.

18 – Simon kelner, editor, The Independent

When Simon Kelner became The Independent’s editor in 1998, he was the paper’s third editor in four months. Since then, he has overseen a period of stability at the paper, managing to reverse the Indy’s falling circulation. His career began as a sports journalist before moving to The Independent as a night editor. From there he was poached to edit The Mail on Sunday’s Night and Day magazine. Last year, The Independent took a risk by introducing a tabloid-size format, a move since repeated by the Times. The risk has so far paid off and the newspaper’s circulation is on the rise.

19 – Sly Bailey, chief executive, Trinity Mirror

Sly Bailey was appointed chief executive of the Trinity Mirror Group in February last year, having previously been chief executive at IPC Media. Last year she introduced a strategic revamp and cost-cutting exercise at the newspaper group, dubbed “stabilise, revitalise, grow”, but a turnaround has continued to elude the group, which is the UK’s largest regional newspaper group and owner of the Daily Mirror and The People. Bailey was appointed to the board of IPC tx, IPC’s TV magazines division in 1997 and was made chief executive of IPC Media in 1999. She began her career in advertising sales on The Guardian before moving to The Independent as advertisement sales manager.

20 – Tim Waterstone, founder, Waterstone’s and Daisy & Tom

A man with a track record for making headlines, Tim Waterstone’s life reads likes one of the novels sold in the bookshop that bears his own name. After being axed from WH Smith for trying to change the way it sold books, he founded Waterstone’s with part of his redundancy payout. Ironically, WH Smith later bought the chain from Waterstone, making him a millionaire. When the entrepreneur’s bid for WH Smith in 1997 failed, the retailer was forced to get rid of Waterstone’s, and it was merged with Dillons and HMV to form HMV Group, with Waterstone as chairman. But differences over how to sell books arose again and Waterstone sought permission to make a bid for his old chain. This failed and HMV Group, with Waterstone’s, was floated in 2002. Waterstone founded children’s toyshop Daisy & Tom in 1997 and last year he turned his attention to Hamleys, but Icelandic retail company Baugur thwarted his bid. It probably won’t be much longer before we see Waterstone making a play for yet another retailer.

21 – Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect, Microsoft Corporation.

In his junior year at Harvard University, Gates left to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had set up in 1975. Under Gates’ leadership, Microsoft became one of the most profitable companies in the world. Microsoft had revenues of $32.19bn (£17.6bn) for the year ending June 2003, and employs more than 54,000 people in 85 countries and regions. The company is committed to a long-term strategy, which is reflected in its investment of more than $6.8bn (£3.7bn) on research and development for the current financial year. Gates is to receive an honorary knighthood, recognising his contribution to enterprise in the UK.

22 РHans str̴berg, president and chief executive, AB Electrolux

Hans StrÃ¥berg has focused on building Electrolux as a global brand since taking over as president and chief executive in April 2002. He immediately called a review of the brand’s advertising, appointing Lowe & Partners early last year (MW December 12, 2002). He has also announced an umbrella branding strategy, putting the Electrolux brand on products alongside its other brands such as Flymo and Zanussi. StrÃ¥berg, who has Masters degrees in science and engineering, joined the company in 1983 and rose to global head of dishwasher and laundry products within four years. He has also held a number of other senior positions at Electrolux around the world, including North America. He became chief operating officer for the group in 2001, rising to take the helm a year later.

23 – Martha Lane Fox, co-founder and former chief executive, Lastminute.com

The past 12 months have been an interesting time for Martha Lane Fox, the co-founder of Lastminute.com and one of the most well-known dot-com figures in the business. She is considering her next move, having announced her retirement from day-to-day management of the internet travel company in November. She is said to be in talks with Wittington Investments, the holding company for Selfridges, about a new role.

24 – Andrew Blowers, founder, Inter

As Churchill Insurance executive director of sales and marketing, Blowers was responsible for extending the brand, famous for its bulldog emblem, through merchandising and events initiatives. Blowers left Churchill Insurance last September, following the company’s £1.1bn sale to Royal Bank of Scotland, owner of chief rival Direct Line. Blowers had previously set up his own specialist travel insurance company, Inter, which he sold to Churchill in 2001.

25 – Sir Peter Davis, group chief executive, J Sainsbury

Sir Peter Davis, “the Man from the Pru”, is struggling to turn around Sainsbury’s, which last year slipped to third place in the UK market, behind Tesco and Asda, in terms of sales. He will slip still further if Wm Morrison completes its acquisition of Safeway. Davis looks increasingly past his sell-by date and the City can’t wait for Justin King to take over as chief executive in March. It is a bitter pill for Davis to swallow, as he looked as though he could do no wrong when he was previously at Sainsbury’s in the Seventies and Eighties as marketing director, and later assistant managing director. In between stints at the supermarket, Davis worked at Prudential as group chief executive, where he featured in the insurance company’s advertising as “the Man from the Pru”.

26 – Tim Martin, founder and chairman, JD Wetherspoon

Tim Martin created the concept of the smoke- and music-free family pub that serves food all day. Martin, then a 24-year-old law student, acquired his first pub in 1979 and has since seen the chain grow to include more than 640 pubs. He floated the company in 1992, and since then has extended the brand into the budget hotel market, in 1998, building up a ten-strong chain of Wetherlodges. Martin still owns about 15 per cent of the company.

27 – Brian Souter, chief executive and co-founder, Stagecoach

Brian Souter is at the centre of a rags-to-riches story in the transport sector. The Scotsman started Stagecoach with his sister more than 20 years ago after buying a couple of second-hand buses with his father’s redundancy money. Exploiting opportunities that came about from Margaret Thatcher’s deregulation of local transport in the Eighties, Souter snapped up hundreds of local transport companies and then proceeded to use tactics such as flooding the routes with free or cheap buses in a bid to cut out rivals. But the company expanded too far and the purchase of Coach USA proved disastrous. Souter returned as chief executive in 2002 to turn the business around. Brought up on a Perth council estate, Souter is known for his strong religious beliefs and for his controversial decision to bankroll a campaign against the Government’s repeal of Clause 28, which bans local authorities from promoting the acceptability of homosexuality in schools.

28 – Dianne thompson, chief executive, Camelot

Thompson has the tough task of reinvigorating the National Lottery – main game Lotto saw sales drop 12 per cent last year to £12.4bn – but she has plenty of experience, previously holding the position of commercial operations director. Challenges faced by Camelot include developing potential Olympic lottery games, establishing the new syndicate games and refuting accusations that the company encourages gambling among young people. Thompson’s marketing experience includes marketing director titles at Woolworths and Signet and a stint as president of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. She has signed off the appointment of new advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO.

29 – Larry Page, co-founder and president of products, Google

Larry Page was Google’s founding chief executive and under him the company grew rapidly, employing more than 200 people, and massively increasing its profitability. He then moved on to become president of products in April 2001. He continues to share responsibility for Google’s day-to-day operations with Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin. Page met Brin while studying for a PhD in computer science at Stanford University, and together they developed and ran Google, which began operating in 1998. Before Google, Page was a software developer at Advanced Management Systems in Washington DC, and CogniTek in Evanston, Illinois.

30 – Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive, Tesco

A former Tesco marketing director, Sir Terry Leahy has built the supermarket chain up to become the UK’s leading supermarket in terms of sales, overtaking middle England’s favourite, Sainsbury’s. Leahy has spent his entire working life at Tesco, starting as a 17-year-old shelf-stacker while still a student at Manchester University and rising to chief executive in 1997. He pioneered Tesco’s Extra hypermarket format as the chain expanded into non-food, and also oversaw its march into the convenience sector with the acquisition of T&S stores, and more recently Adminstore, which includes the Cullens and Europa brands. He has recently raised £773m through a share placement to fund small acquisitions and the expansion of Tesco’s hypermarkets, convenience stores and financial services. Although many have been tipped as his successor at Tesco, aged in his late 40s Leahy looks as though he is, for the time being, there to stay.

Top Finance Marketers

Name Company % of interviewed who voted for candidate 1 Angu