The Board
Board of Directors
Oliver was a director of NM Rothschild & 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 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 the Dixons Stores Group where he held a variety of commercial positions, including sales director of Currys, product marketing director of the 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. He is a non-executive director of Hammerson plc.
Richard started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers 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. She has held a number of non-executive roles on the boards of international businesses such as Vodafone, Trinity Mirror, Body Shop, Reuters and GAP. Currently she serves on the board of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc and Cable & Wireless. She is President of the Advertising Association and a Trustee of the British Museum. Penny joined the Board of Home Retail Group in December 2006 and chairs the remuneration committee.
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 April 2005. He became a non-executive director of Home Retail Group in October 2006. He is the senior independent director and chairs the audit committee of Home Retail Group. He is a non-executive director of HSBC Holdings, chairman of Hogg Robinson Group and a former member of the Code Committee of the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers. Until 2003, he was a member of the UK Accounting Standards Board. He is also a trustee of the Royal Academy of Arts Trust, where he chairs the audit committee.
Operating Board
Paul 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 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 is also a non-executive director of Mitchells and Butlers plc.
Greg started his career at Courtaulds Plc. In 1988 he joined Littlewoods where he spent 17 years and held a variety of positions. These included Marketing Director, Group E Commerce Director and Managing Director of Littlewoods Finance Co. Greg joined Home Retail Group in November 2004 as Managing Director of Financial Services. In March 2009, he assumed additional responsibility covering Customer Services and Home Delivery across the retail brands.
Pete started his career with CAP (UK) Limited, a leading software house, where he trained in information systems. He then spent five years with Mars Group Services before joining Coca-Cola & Schweppes Beverages Ltd in 1987 where he held a variety of senior systems roles. Pete joined Argos in 1997 and shortly after was appointed Information Systems Director. In October 2006 he became Group IS Director of Home Retail Group.
Maria joined Argos in 1990 and has held a variety of roles, and was appointed Commercial Director, Argos Retail Group in 2003 and subsequently Commercial Director, Home Retail Group in 2006. Prior to joining Argos, Maria had worked in various marketing, buying and product management roles in the Young & Rubicon Group, Boots the Chemist and Associated British Foods.
Gordon is responsible for the Corporate Secretariat, Legal Affairs, Consumer Affairs and Corporate Responsibility within Home Retail Group. Prior to the demerger of Home Retail Group from GUS plc in October 2006, he was Company Secretary of GUS plc. Previously Gordon worked for Standard Chartered plc in a number of roles, including senior management positions in the Legal and Compliance department, the Group Chief Executive's Office and Government Relations, culminating in his appointment as Group Secretary. Gordon is a director and trustee of Green-works, a social enterprise and registered charity that recycles office furniture.
David started his career in Ford Motor Company in the HR function, before moving to Grand Metropolitan plc in 1989. David held a variety of HR positions in the UK and Europe before a merger created Diageo plc in 1997, when he became Regional HR Director for Asia-Pacific, based in Hong Kong. He subsequently held a variety of global HR roles for Diageo, latterly as Director of Talent and Organisation Strategy, before joining Home Retail Group as HR Director in April 2007.

