Archibald John Norman (born 1 May 1954) is a British businessman and politician. He is the only person to have been chairman of an FTSE 100 company and a Member of the House of Commons (MP) at the same time.[1] From January 2010 to January 2016, Norman was the chairman of ITV plc. He succeeded Robert Swannell as chairman of Marks & Spencer in September 2017.
Born the second of five sons of two doctors,[1] Archie Norman was educated at Charterhouse, the University of Minnesota, Emmanuel College, Cambridge and (after a short period at Citigroup), at Harvard Business School, where he obtained an MBA.[2]
Norman joined McKinsey & Company on graduation, where William Hague (future British Foreign Secretary) was one of his protégés.[3] He then held directorships at Geest and Railtrack, before becoming group finance director at Britain's then largest retailer, Kingfisher plc at 32.
From 1991 until 1999, Norman was Chief Executive and then Chairman of Asda, the large supermarket chain, and with Allan Leighton, he is credited with turning it around, and making it the second largest in the United Kingdom, before its sale to Wal-Mart in July 1999.[4]
In November 1999, he stepped down from the chain.[5] From the early nineties, Norman was also chairman of The Children's Trust, and in 1998, he was succeeded by Sir Brian Hill.[6]
During the 1980s, Norman stood unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate in council elections in Southwark, London.[7] In 1996, on the advice of Francis Maude, Norman decided to apply for the Conservative safe seat of Tunbridge Wells, soon to be vacated by Sir Patrick Mayhew.