Awards '06
Stuart Rose: Business
Having joined Marks & Spencer as a management trainee in 1972, Stuart Rose's career in business since then speaks for itself: following positions at the Burton Group, Argos, Booker and the Arcadia Group, he returned to Marks & Spencer in 2004, this time as Chief Executive, where he presided over a significant upturn in the company’s fortunes.
Away from Marks & Spencer’s core business activities, Stuart attracted attention early in 2006 by fulfilling a generous promise made in 2004. His belief, that Marks & Spencer’s shares were worth more than the 400p offered by Phillip Green, led him to agree to donate the gains on his stock options should the shares top the 400p mark.
By June 2006, Marks & Spencer shares were trading well at over 400p, having gone up nearly 70% in the previous 12 months, which was just over 50% better than the FTSE All-Share. True to his word, in 2006 Stuart used part of his profits to give £500,000 to a Tanzanian school.
The judges felt Stuart Rose should win, not only because of his undeniable business success and “dramatic transformation of Marks & Spencer’s fortunes”, but because of the way in which he did this. The judges agreed that Stuart Rose personified the British characteristics of adaptability, modesty and determination and that he managed to keep a great sense of humour throughout. They felt it was important to stress that Stuart Rose had taken a truly “British institution and revitalised it” and had reinstated the British people’s sense of pride in Marks & Spencer.
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