Sir Ian Cheshire

Appointed

March 2023 & Chair from May 2023

Committees

Nomination Committee (Chair), Remuneration Committee

Role

Leads the Board, responsible for governance, major shareholder and other stakeholder engagement.

Skills and experience

Sir Ian brings extensive general management and board experience across a range of sectors including Real Estate. His executive roles include senior leadership and commercial roles in customer-focused businesses.

Sir Ian’s executive career was spent in retail, customer-focused businesses in senior leadership and commercial roles, latterly as Group Chief Executive of Kingfisher Plc from 2008 to 2015 and prior to that he was Chief Executive of B&Q Plc from June 2005. He previously held FTSE Non-executive Director roles at Barclays Plc (and Chair of Barclays Bank UK), Whitbread Plc (Senior Independent Director), BT Group Plc (Remuneration Committee Chair), Spire Healthcare plc (Chair), Channel 4 (Chair) and Menhaden Resource Efficiency Plc (Chair). He was the lead non-executive director at the UK Cabinet Office and Department for Work and Pensions. Sir Ian was also Chairman of the British Retail Consortium, Chairman of the Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change, President of the Business Disability Forum President’s Group and chaired the Ecosystem Markets Task Force and GR Task Force. Sir Ian was knighted in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to Business, Sustainability and the Environment and is a Chevalier of the Ordre National du Merite of France.

Other current appointments

Sir Ian is Chair of Anglian Water Group and Anglian Water Services. He also Chairs the King Charles III Charitable Fund and the corporate climate change coalition We Mean Business, the Institute for Government, and Ofcom, the UK’s independent regulator for communications. Ian has also been a commissioner on the Pensions Commission since 2025.