Martin Dudley Beaumont CVO (born 6 August 1949) is a British businessman who was, until October 2007, the chief executive of the Co-operative group, today a £9.4 billion turnover enterprise employing in excess of 85,000 people across a diverse portfolio of businesses.

Early life

He attended

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

, where he studied Land Economy.

Career

During his tenure, he continued extensive restructuring and modernisation of the group - which spans food stores, funerals, pharmacies and financial services. In particular, he reshaped the portfolio of businesses, implemented a strategy to rejuvenate the brand and reintroduced the Coop dividend. From 1992 for ten years he was CEO of United Cooperatives where he grew turnover to £1.3 billion, overseeing the expansion of its trading base and a consistent growth in profits. He was also deputy chairman of

The Co-operative Bank The Co-operative Bank p.l.c. is a British retail and commercial bank based in Manchester, England. Established as a bank for co-operators and co-operatives following the principles of the Rochdale Pioneers, the business evolved in the 20th ce ...

. A

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

graduate, Martin Beaumont spent the first 16 years of his career with

KPMG KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 emplo ...

, becoming a partner with general practice and management consultancy responsibilities. Amongst several non-executive and advisory roles, he is chairman of the UK Retail skills council Skillsmart since 2007. He is also Chairman of Chester Races and Kind Consumer

Personal life

He married Andrea Wilberforce in 1976, and they have three daughters. Beaumont was appointed by Her Majesty The Queen as

High Sheriff of Cheshire This is a list of Sheriffs (and after 1 April 1974, High Sheriffs) of Cheshire. The High Sheriff, Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the The Crown, Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law officer, law enforcement officer in th ...

for the Shrieval Year 2013/2014 He was appointed

Commander of the Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order () is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the monarch, members of the royal family, or to any viceroy or senior representative of the ...

(CVO) in the

2017 Birthday Honours The 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours were awarded a ...

for his services as a member of the Duchy of Lancaster Council.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beaumont, Martin 1949 births Living people Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge British retail chief executives Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order English businesspeople in retailing High sheriffs of Cheshire The Co-operative Group