Ian MacLaurin, Baron MacLaurin of Knebworth
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Ian Charter MacLaurin, Baron MacLaurin of Knebworth (born March 30, 1937) has been Chairman of Vodafone, the global mobile phone operator, since June 2000 and is planned to retire from the Board as of July 2006. He will be succeeded as Chairman by Sir John Bond (banker), currently Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings Plc and a non-executive director of Vodafone. Sir John will be retiring from HSBC in May 2006.
Upon his retirement from the Board, Lord MacLaurin will become an adviser to the Company. He will also become Chairman of the Vodafone Group Foundation, an independent charitable trust set up to administer charitable and other donations on behalf of the Company.
Ian MacLaurin has had a distinguished business career and joined Vodafone as a non-executive director in 1997, becoming Chairman in July 1998. In his 9 years with the Company he has served twice as Chairman, as he stepped down on the merger with AirTouch Communications Inc in 1999, resuming his role a year later.
He was formerly Chairman and Chief Executive of Tesco Plc during his 38 years with the international retailer, a company he joined in 1959 and which he saw expand into the largest retailer in the United Kingdom. He was Chairman of Tesco from 1985 to 1997, having been Managing Director of the firm for 12 years.
He had also held non-executive roles in a number of FTSE-100 companies. Outside the world of business he has been Chairman of the England Wales Cricket Board and is now Chairman of the Sport Honours Committee.
Ian MacLaurin was born in 1937 in Blackheath, Kent. He attended Malvern College as a pupil. He joined Tesco as a management trainee, then held a number of more senior appointments in its retail operations before being appointed to its Board in 1970.
Ian MacLaurin was knighted in 1989, and was created a life peer in 1996 taking the title Baron MacLaurin of Knebworth, of Knebworth in the County of Hertfordshire. He is the former Chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board and current Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1986.
