Don McCarthy

Don McCarthy
Born	(1955-06-19) June 19, 1955 Bromley, England
Nationality	British

Donald McCarthy is a British entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is most known for being the chairman of House of Fraser.

Career

McCarthy left school aged 16 and joined footwear retailer Stead & Simpson as a full-time sales assistant, having worked for them as a Saturday boy since the age of 14. Working there he progressed to store management positions. In 1978, at the age of 20, he joined Kurt Geiger at its central London flagship store in Bond Street, central London.^[1] The business was owned by the South African Spitz family, who had acquired the business from the eponymous founder's widow in 1972.^[2] McCarthy was part of a team that developed Kurt Geiger´s mid-range shoe brand Carvela. He became sales director, developing a close working relationship with co-owner David Spitz, who became a long-term friend and business colleague. In March 1985, Mohamed Al-Fayed and his family purchased House of Fraser, which in turn acquired Kurt Geiger Holdings later that year.^{[3] [1]}

McCarthy remained with the company until 1991, when, with David Spitz, he founded and became chief executive officer of The Shoe Studio Group, a multi-brand concession footwear retailer. In 1996 The Shoe Studio Group was acquired by Nine West Inc.^[4] In 2001, McCarthy led a management buyout from Nine West.^[5]

In 2005, McCarthy organised the acquisition by Shoe Studio Group of Rubicon Retail for £140m.^[6] As the major and leading shareholder, he became chairman and chief executive of the enlarged group. In 2006 McCarthy stepped down from the board after Rubicon Retail was acquired by Mosaic Fashions.^[7] At the end of 2006, McCarthy headed a consortium of investors that acquired House of Fraser and he was appointed executive chairman.^[8] In May 2011, in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008, McCarthy and his team secured the replacement of the company’s debt with a long-term bond.^[9] He then led negotiations with Yuan Yafei, the chairman of Chinese conglomerate Sanpower, which in July 2014 acquired 89% of the shares in House of Fraser through its subsidiary Nanjing Cenbest.^[10] In September 2014, McCarthy stepped down as executive chairman of House of Fraser to concentrate on his family’s new investment vehicle, No.9 Investments.^[11]

From 2007 until 2012 McCarthy also was chairman of Aurum, a British watch and jewellery retailer. Aurum was acquired by US private equity firm Apollo Global Management in December 2012. McCarthy, who had controlled 25% of the shares, left Aurum after the Apollo acquisition.^[12]

He is the founding patron of the British School of Fashion in New York, an offshoot of GCU, which was opened in 2013.^[13]

Philanthropy

McCarthy’s wife Diane Agnew died of cancer in 2007. That year McCarthy donated £1m to The Royal Marsden, a cancer hospital in London, which treated Diane.^[14] In spring 2015, McCarthy and his family donated a further £1.5m for to the hospital.^[15]

McCarthy is a patron and ambassador of the retailing trade charity Retail Trust. In January 2015 he received its Retail Legend award.^[16]

Awards and Honors

McCarthy has appeared in top 25 of Drapers’ Top 100 most influential people in fashion retailing since it began in 2002. In June 2015 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Drapers Footwear Awards.^[17]

In November 2010 McCarthy was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Glasgow Caledonian University.^[18]

References