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Dave Lewis (businessman)

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Sir
Dave Lewis
BornMarch 1965 (age 59)
Yorkshire, England
EducationTrent Polytechnic
OccupationBusinessman
Years active1987–present
TitleFormer CEO, Tesco
Term2014–2020
PredecessorPhilip Clarke
SuccessorKen Murphy
Board member ofPepsiCo
SpouseHelena Lewis
Children2 daughters (from 1st marriage)

Sir David John Lewis (born 1965) is an English businessman. He is the former CEO of Tesco, serving from 2014 to 2020.[1][2][3] Prior to joining Tesco, he was president of global personal care at Unilever.[4] Sir David has served as Director of The Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales since his appointment in July 2024.

Early life and education

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Lewis was born in March 1965,[5] in Yorkshire.[6] Lewis attended Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge from 1979 to 1981.[7]

After Thorne Grammar School, he went to university, graduating from Trent Polytechnic, now Nottingham Trent University, with a BA in Business Studies in 1987.[8]

In 2002, he completed a six-week Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School.[9] In 2012, Nottingham Trent University awarded Lewis an honorary doctorate.[10]

Career

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Lewis worked at Unilever for over 27 years in various posts.[11] In August 2014, he left the company to become CEO of the British multinational retailer Tesco.[12] Lewis left Tesco in September 2020. In September 2021, Lewis joined energy startup Xlinks as executive chair.[13]

Unilever

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In 1987, after graduating from Nottingham Trent University, Lewis obtained a post as graduate trainee at the Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever, in the UK.[14] He worked at Unilever for 27 years from 1987 until September 2014.[15] Between 1990 and 1992, he worked at National Accounts for the company.[7]

One of the biggest successes of his career at Unilever was in 1992 when he launched Dove, a personal care brand, in the UK.[16] The launch of Dove in the UK was seen as a success considering the fact that Dove is now one of Unilever's largest brands contributing $5.885 billion to the company for the year 2014.[17] A year later, in 1993, he became company operations manager for Lever Brothers Ltd, a subsidiary of Unilever in the UK.[18]

During his time at Unilever, Lewis worked in various positions across the company around the world. In 1996, after 12 years at the company, Lewis moved to South America to become Marketing Director of River Plate which involved Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.[19] Three years later, in 1999, he moved to Indonesia where he worked as Managing Director of Unilever for the personal care business of the country.[12] According to Unilever, Lewis managed an average annual growth rate of 30% for the business of personal care of Indonesia.[20] He served at this post until September 2001.[7]

In 2002, he attended Harvard Business School, where he completed the Advanced Management Programme[9][21] before becoming Senior Vice President for Home and Personal Care of Central and Eastern Europe in 2002.[12] He served at this post for three years. In 2005, he returned to the UK and worked as Managing Director of the UK's home and personal care business.[12]

In 2004, Lewis and his team came up with an unconventional approach called the “Real Beauty” campaign as a marketing strategy for Unilever's Dove brand.[18] This involved using everyday women rather than models in the brand’s advertisements.[18] The campaign received a positive response.[22]

In 2007, he was appointed chairman of Unilever for UK and Ireland.[18][23]

In 2010, Lewis became president for the Americas.[24] In 2011, he became President of Personal Care of the company.[18] He occupied this post until October 2014, when he became CEO of Tesco.[18][25]

When working at Unilever, he was nicknamed “Drastic Dave” which was a reflection of his management actions which included reducing the number of products produced by the company from 1600 to 400 and for cutting jobs which led to a decrease of 40% in company expenditure for the year 2007.[26] Before the announcement in July 2014 that he would be leaving the company, he was a candidate to become Paul Polman's successor as CEO of Unilever.[27]

Tesco

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In July 2014, it was announced that Lewis was leaving Unilever to become CEO of Tesco.[28][29] This was the result of Tesco’s previous CEO, Philip Clarke, stepping down from his post which he obtained in 2011. Lewis was scheduled to start work as CEO of Tesco on 1 October 2014, but he began work a month earlier than planned, on 1 September 2014.[30]

Lewis became CEO after the debacle when it was revealed to the public that Tesco overestimated their profits by £250 million for the year 2014.[31] Tesco had chosen Lewis to replace Clarke due to the many years of experience Lewis has gained throughout his career at Unilever working at various posts for both the national (UK) market as well as the international market.[32] Lewis also has experience working with Tesco directly, being one of Tesco's largest suppliers of brands including Dove, Vaseline and Lynx.[33]

Lewis began working at Tesco in September 2014 with a basic annual salary of £1.25 million.[34]

His total annual pay for financial year 2017, as reported in May 2018, was £4.9 million.[35]

In October 2019, Tesco announced that Lewis will step down as CEO in 2020,[36] and would be succeeded by Ken Murphy.[37] Lewis told the board he wanted to leave in 2018 and John Allan, the chairman, said internal candidates were considered but no one was experienced enough.[38] He left the company on 30 September 2020.[39]

Lewis was knighted in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to the food industry and business.[40]

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Lewis joined Xlinks, a startup energy company in September 2021, as executive chair. Xlinks has ambitious plans for its Morocco – UK Power Project, which aims to install massive solar and wind energy farms in the sunny and windy Morocco desert, along with batteries for energy storage, and build massive high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) undersea cables to deliver the power to the UK. Given the project's major HVDC cable requirements, the project also plans to build cable factories in the UK.[13]

Board positions

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In October 2021, Lewis was appointed as the UK Government's new supply chain advisor and co-chair of the Supply Chain Advisory Group.[41]

In November 2021, he joined PepsiCo's Board of Directors.[42]

In December 2021, he was announced as the chairman of GlaxoSmithKline's consumer healthcare business, effective from January 2022.[43][44]

Personal life

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Lewis is divorced from his first wife, with whom he has two daughters, and is married to Helena. They live in Richmond, London.[45]

In interviews he has stated that he likes to stay physically active and particularly enjoys running. He believes and has stated that: "Improving the health and vitality of our people is an essential requirement".[46] In 2008, he participated in the London Marathon sponsored by Flora, one of Unilever’s brands.[47]

His other hobbies include photography, cooking, and playing golf and racket sports. In an interview for the London Evening Standard he revealed that being surrounded by the river and the park in Richmond, where he currently lives, encourages him to stay physically active.[48]

Criticism

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Lewis has been heavily criticized for not responding to calls to improve Tesco's broiler chicken welfare in line with that of KFC, Waitrose, M&S, and Unilever, despite a lengthy campaign by pressure group Open Cages. The Times released an article in August 2019 featuring a video exposé of birds displaying "serious mobility problems" inside of an intensive Tesco supplier farm, however Lewis has not commented on the matter.[49]

In May 2019 an undercover investigation of a Thailand Tesco egg supplier, released by the Daily Mirror, found Tesco was serving Thai customers eggs from battery cage farms.[50] In August 2019, an investigation of the company producing Tesco's own-brand eggs in Malaysia, broken by the New Straits Times, documented similar conditions.[51] In response to the investigation, Tesco committed to ending the sale of caged eggs in Thailand and Malaysia.[52]

References

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  1. ^ Jack, Simon (22 September 2014). "Tesco's chief executive Dave Lewis: Full interview". British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  2. ^ Evans, Peter (29 August 2014). "Lewis to Become Tesco Chief Executive a Month Early". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
  3. ^ "Dave Lewis' resignation as Tesco CEO: What the industry experts say". www.retailgazette.co.uk. 2 October 2019. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  4. ^ "Dave Lewis – President, Personal Care". Unilever. Archived from the original on 6 January 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  5. ^ "Tesco plc". Companies House. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  6. ^ Neate, Rupert (27 July 2014). "We know Dave Lewis can sell soap. Can he really run Tesco?". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
  7. ^ a b c "David Lewis Profile". LinkedIn. LinkedIn. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  8. ^ "Alumnus Dave Lewis joins Tesco as Chief Executive". Nottingham Trent University. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  9. ^ a b "Who is Dave Lewis? Five things to know about new Tesco chief". The Week. 21 July 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  10. ^ "Alumnus Dave Lewis joins Tesco as Chief Executive". Nottingham Trent University. Nottingham Trent University. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  11. ^ Spary, Sara (5 September 2014). "New Tesco boss Dave Lewis pledges to take struggling retailer 'back to the core'". Marketing Magazine. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  12. ^ a b c d Butler, Sarah; Rankin, Jennifer (21 July 2014). "Tesco's new chief executive Dave Lewis – profile". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  13. ^ a b Hill, Joshua S. (28 September 2021). "Massive 10.5GW wind, solar and battery project in Morocco to send power to UK". RenewEconomy. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  14. ^ Strydom, Martin (21 July 2014). "Who is Dave Lewis, Tesco's new chief executive?". The Telegraph. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  15. ^ "Dave Lewis' letter to Tesco staff". 1 September 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  16. ^ Chapman, Matthew (31 July 2014). "Analysis: Tesco's image problem must be addressed by new boss Dave Lewis". Retail Week. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  17. ^ "Statistics and facts on Unilever". Statista. Statista. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  18. ^ a b c d e f Barrett, Claer; Daneshku, Scheherazade (21 July 2014). "Tesco turns to man behind Dove's 'love your body' campaign". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  19. ^ "Dave Lewis – President, Personal Care". Unilever. Unilever. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  20. ^ Spence, Peter (21 July 2014). "Dave Lewis: Tesco share prices jumps as investors bet on new CEO's strong Unilever record". City A.M. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  21. ^ Eley, Jonathan (2 October 2019). "Dave Lewis declares 'mission accomplished' at Tesco". Financial Times. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  22. ^ Scott, Sarah (June 2013). "A Critique of Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty". p. 13. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  23. ^ "Lewis, David BRIEF BIOGRAPHY". Reuters. Archived from the original on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
  24. ^ Rudenko, Anna (2 December 2010). "Dave Lewis, President of the Americas, Unilever,—on the first three steps Unilever will take to move towards its Sustainable Living goals". POPSOP. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  25. ^ Ruddick, Graham (24 July 2014). "Dave Lewis faces 'big challenge' at Tesco says Unilever boss". The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  26. ^ Mehboob, Jeelani (14 August 2014). "Dave Lewis: retail's newest strategist". Fortune. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  27. ^ "Who is Dave Lewis, Tesco's new chief executive?". The Telegraph. 22 July 2014. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
  28. ^ Sillitoe, Ben (21 July 2014). "struggling Tesco CEO Philip Clarke replaced by Unilever's Lewis – reaction". Essential Retail. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  29. ^ "Tesco CEO replaced by Unilever's Lewis after poor sales". HR Grapevine. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  30. ^ "Who is Dave Lewis? Five things to know about new Tesco chief". The Week. 21 July 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  31. ^ Ridley, Louise (22 September 2014). "Tesco Overestimates Profits By £250 Million And Suspends Four Directors – But Is This Its Darkest Hour Ever?". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  32. ^ "Dave Lewis Profile". Archived from the original on 16 October 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  33. ^ Somerville, Michael (22 July 2014). "Dave Lewis – from supplier to retailer". Retail Gazette. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  34. ^ Thompson, Scott (21 July 2014). "Clarke out as Tesco looks to rebound". Retail Systems. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  35. ^ Mattinson, Alec. "Tesco CEO Dave Lewis' pay up 17.5% to £4.9m". thegrocer.co.uk. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  36. ^ "Tesco CEO Dave Lewis to step down in 2020". Reuters. 2 October 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
  37. ^ Pratley, Nils. "New Tesco boss isn't the obvious choice for chief executive". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  38. ^ Wood, Zoe (2 October 2019). "Tesco chief Dave Lewis announces surprise departure". The Guardian – via www.theguardian.com.
  39. ^ Davey, James (29 September 2020). "Lewis checks out at Britain's Tesco, leaving challenges for new CEO". Reuters. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  40. ^ "No. 63218". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2020. p. N2.
  41. ^ "Prime Minister appoints expert supply chain adviser". GOV.UK. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  42. ^ Woolfson, Daniel (4 November 2020). "Dave Lewis joins PepsiCo board of directors". The Grocer. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  43. ^ Ralph, Alex. "Ex-Tesco boss Sir Dave Lewis to lead Glaxo spin-off". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  44. ^ agencies, Guardian staff and (20 December 2021). "GSK hires ex-Tesco boss Sir Dave Lewis to lead healthcare spin-off". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  45. ^ Ashton, James (1 September 2014). "To the rescue of Tesco: Dave Lewis's mission to save UK's biggest supermarket". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  46. ^ Business in the Community. Physical Activity Toolkit[Brochure]. (May 2009) Business in the Community
  47. ^ "Who is Dave Lewis? Five things to know about new Tesco chief". The Week. 21 July 2014. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  48. ^ Ashton, James (1 September 2014). "To the rescue of Tesco: Dave Lewis's mission to save UK's biggest supermarket". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  49. ^ Webster, Ben (10 August 2019). "Chicken farming: birds 'spend final days in agony'". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  50. ^ Penman, Andrew (10 May 2019). "Hens "will never be able to spread their wings or engage in natural behaviour"". mirror. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
  51. ^ Radhi, Nor Ain Mohamed (9 August 2019). "Tesco rapped for selling eggs from caged hens". nst.com.my. New Straits Times. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  52. ^ "Maintaining and improving animal welfare". Tesco PLC. Retrieved 29 August 2019.
Business positions
Preceded by CEO of Tesco
2014–2020 		Succeeded by
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