About us

Oliver was a director of NM Rothschild and Sons and held several roles within Barclays Group culminating in his appointment as group finance director of Barclays PLC. In 2000, he was appointed to the GUS board where he chaired the audit committee and subsequently the remuneration committee. In October 2006, he became chairman of Home Retail Group.

He is deputy chairman of 3i Group plc, a non-executive director of Standard Chartered plc and chairman of Stanhope plc and Oval Limited. Oliver is also chairman of the Trustees of the Natural History Museum.

Terry began his career at Letraset, working in personnel management and then in product management. In 1984, he joined Dixons Stores Group where he held a variety of commercial positions, including sales director of Currys, product marketing director of Dixons Stores Group and, latterly, managing director of PC World. Terry joined GUS in August 1998 as chief executive of the newly acquired Argos, becoming a GUS director later that year. In 2000, he was appointed chief executive of Argos Retail Group. In October 2006, he became chief executive of Home Retail Group.

Richard started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP where he trained as a chartered accountant. In 1994, he joined GE where he spent eight years and held a variety of positions. These included chief financial officer of GE Capital’s pan-European equipment financing business, headquartered in The Netherlands, assistant to GE Capital’s chief financial officer in the US and various finance roles in the UK. Richard joined Argos Retail Group as finance director in November 2001. In October 2006, he became finance director of Home Retail Group.

Penny spent ten years with Coca Cola, initially as marketing director and ultimately as president of Coca-Cola GB & Ireland. Over the last decade she has held a number of non-executive roles on the boards of international businesses such as Vodafone, Trinity Mirror and Body Shop. Currently she serves on the boards of Reuters, GAP and the Swedish bank Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken. She is President of the Advertising Association and Trustee, British Museum. Penny joined the Board of Home Retail Group in December 2006.

John held a number of senior financial roles within Charterhouse Group plc and Charter Consolidated plc before joining Glaxo Holdings in 1986. Appointed to the board in 1992, he was ultimately chief financial officer of GlaxoSmithKline for five years before retiring in 2005. He joined the GUS board in 2005. He is a non-executive director of HSBC Holdings, chairman of Hogg Robinson Group and a former member of the supervisory board of Siemens AG, the Code Committee of the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers and the UK Accounting Standards Board. He is the senior independent director and chairs the audit committee of Home Retail Group. John became a non-executive director of Home Retail Group in October 2006.

Andy began his career at Boston Consulting Group before joining Blue Circle as business development director, Blue Circle Home Products. Following a move to ASDA he held a number of senior general management roles including managing director of the George clothing business. In 1999, Andy joined the board of Halifax as chief executive, Halifax Retail. Since August 2006, he has been chief executive of HBOS plc. Andy joined the GUS board in 2004. He became a non-executive director of Home Retail Group in October 2006. Andy chairs the remuneration committee of Home Retail Group.

Paul Loft joined Argos as finance director in June 1999. He was subsequently managing director of GUS Home Shopping before taking up his current position as managing director of Homebase. Prior to this, he spent 11 years with the Burton group and was finance director of Debenhams.

Sara Weller joined Argos as managing director in July 2004. In the period 2000 to 2004 she held the positions of marketing director, deputy managing director and board member of J Sainsbury plc. Between 1996 and 2000 she was the retail marketing director with Abbey National plc and prior to this she worked at Mars Confectionery UK. Sara Weller is also a non-executive director of Mitchells and Butlers plc.