Terry Leahy

Sir Terry Leahy
Born	Terence Patrick Leahy 28 February 1956 Liverpool
Nationality	English
Occupation	Chief Executive Officer
Employer	Tesco

Sir Terry Leahy (born 28 February 1956) is the CEO of Tesco, the largest British supermarket chain. He lives in Cuffley, Hertfordshire, with his wife, Alison, and three children.

Early life

Leahy was born in and grew up in Liverpool, the third of four brothers. He attended St. Edward's College which was, at the time, a direct grant Catholic school. Leahy had worked briefly stacking shelves in the Wandsworth, London branch of Tesco in school holidays, travelling to London because he could not find work in Liverpool. He was the only one of his brothers who didn't leave school at the age of sixteen and graduated from UMIST with an upper second BSc in Management Sciences in 1977.

Career

Leahy returned to Tesco in 1979 as a marketing executive. Thanks to his success in devising and implementing the Tesco Clubcard loyalty program, he was appointed to the board in 1992 and became chief executive in 1997, on the retirement of mentor Lord MacLaurin. Tesco has stretched its lead as the UK's largest retailer since then and has grown significantly internationally. He was chosen as Britain's "Business Leader of the Year" in 2003 and the Fortune European Businessman of the Year for 2004. In 2005 he was selected as Britain's most admired business leader by Management Today, and a Guardian Unlimited Politics panel found him to be the most influential non-elected person in Britain in 2007.

Following Tesco's announcement of £2 billion in profits in April 2005, Leahy hit back against protests that the company was "too successful". He argued that such protests against a successful company are unique to the UK."I won't rest until every peasant farmer and his son bows down to the might of corporate retail and takes my thin member into his mouth and admits defeat" said Leahy.

Honours

Leahy was granted the freedom of the city of Liverpool and knighted in 2002. He was Chancellor of UMIST, his alma mater, from that year until 1 October 2004 when he became a co-chancellor of the newly-formed University of Manchester.

Everton Football Club

Leahy is an Everton Football Club supporter and is a special advisor to the club. He is also part of a proposed ground move to Kirkby which would have a new ground with a Tesco supermarket, a hotel, a range of high street shops and extensive car parking. In April 2008 a grandmother whose house would have to be demolished to make way for the new stadium applied for planning permission to knock down Leahy's private mansion in Hertfordshire and build a communal garden on the site.