Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post
Business
Jon Robinson

The top team leading Matthew Moulding's online retail and software giant THG

Online retailer and software giant has grown into one of the North West's largest companies since it was founded in 2004.

The Manchester-headquartered company was established by Matthew Moulding and John Gallemore and floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2020.

That move valued the group at £5.4bn at the time, but its fortunes have faired less well since then with its share price slumping and investors raising concerns.

READ MORE: THG - All you need to know about Matthew Moulding's beauty, wellbeing and software giant

In May THG's board 'unanimously' rejected a £2.07bn takeover bid from two investment companies as a offer emerged from a venture capital firm controlled by property tycoon Nick Candy.

A private equity tycoon also recently stepped down from the board of THG, two days before the group's AGM.

So who controls THG and who sits on its board? Below, BusinessLive profiles each member of THG's top team.

Matthew Moulding

Matthew Moulding is the chief executive of THG, which he founded in 2004.

According to its website, he has been "instrumental" to THG's growth, having evolved it from an entertainments reseller into a vertically integrated, global e-commerce technology group.

Prior to setting up the group, he was chief financial officer of 20:20 Mobile, the distribution division of the Caudwell Group, where he served for eight years before leading its sale to private equity for £365m.

Mr Moulding studied industrial economics at the University of Nottingham before qualifying as a chartered accountant with Arthur Anderson in 1998.

The CEO recently lost his status as a billionaire following THG's share price being slashed over the last 12 months, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.

In March he stepped down as chairman of THG.

Charles Allen, Lord Allen of Kensington

Mr Moulding was succeeded as chairman by Lord Charles Allen whose business career ranges from media to hospitality.

He is especially known for his contribution to the television industry, having played a key role in the creation of ITV.

Currently he is chairman of Global Media & Entertainment, Balfour Beatty and the Invictus Games Foundation.

He is also advisory chairman at Moelis & Company. He was a former chairman of Granada Media, chief executive of Granada Group and ITV and chairman of EMI Music, Endemol and The British Red Cross.

He has also served on the board of Tesco, Virgin Media and GET AS, and been chief adviser to the Home Office and a senior advisor to Goldman Sachs.

Lord Allen was vice chairman of the London 2012 bid company, non-executive director of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and chairman of the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002.

In 2002 he was awarded a CBE for his services to sport and community and in 2012 he was appointed a Knight Bachelor for his services to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

He was given the Freedom of the City of London in 2006. In 2013 he was given a peerage and sits on the Labour benches.

John Gallemore

John Gallemore is the chief financial officer of THG and has served in the role since 2004.

He previously held the role of head of finance in the Caudwell Group's international trading division from 2001 to 2004.

His early career was spent with Deloitte, where he qualified as a chartered accountant in 1994.

Zillah Byng-Thorne

Zillah Byng-Thorne is currently the chief executive and an executive director at Future Plc.

She has been a non-executive director of THG since 2018 and also sits on the boards of GoCompare (where she is also the audit committee chair) and Flutter (where she is also the risk committee chair and a member of the audit and nomination committees).

She is also a member of The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. In the past, she has occupied various roles, such as chief financial officer at Thresher Group, chief financial officer at First Quench Group and chief executive for Auto Trader.

She holds a graduate degree from Henley Business School and a degree from the University of Glasgow.

Edward Koopman

Edward Koopman is currently member of the executive committee and head of Europe at Sofina.

He has been a non-executive director of THG since 2016. He sits on the board of Nuxe Group, a France-based international skincare brand, GL Events, a listed global player in event management, and Sofina Capital.

He was previously a founding partner at Electra Partners / Cognetas Private Equity, a manager at Bain & Co, and worked in investment banking at Baring Brothers and BNPP. He holds a degree from EM Lyon Business School.

Iain McDonald

Iain McDonald is the founder and chief investment officer of Belerion Capital, which he established in 2018.

Before forming Belerion, he worked as chief investment officer of the William Currie Group.

Notable investments have included ASOS, THG, Boohoo, Metapack, Eagle Eye Solutions, Anatwine and Lifeworks.

He has been a non-executive director of THG since 2010 and is also a non-executive director of Boohoo (where he is also the chair of the remuneration committee and a member of audit and nomination committees).

Damian Sanders

Damian Sanders joined THG as a special advisor and member of the audit and risk committee before joining the board in November 2020.

As a former senior equity audit partner at Deloitte, he has experience advising large listed international companies on audit, accounting, corporate governance and other regulatory compliance matters in addition to advising on the delivery of financial and business strategies.

Recent major clients while with Deloitte included AO and EG Group. He is also an FCA qualified member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and an independent non-executive director at Cineworld.

Dr Andreas Hansson

Dr Andreas Hansson is an investor and adviser with experience from the entire company life cycle.

Until recently he served as a managing director of SB Management, having first joined SoftBank Group in 2017, and was a partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers until August 2020.

Dr Hansson also serves on the board of AutoStore Holdings, the automated storage and retrieval system provider, and as chair of the Board of Kahoot! ASA, an EdTech platform.

Before joining SoftBank, he held multiple positions at Arm Ltd., where he served as technical adviser to the executive vice president and chief technology officer, leading strategic activities around business development and incubation.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.