Ian Cheshire was appointed to the Board of Kingfisher in June 2000 and as Group Chief Executive in January 2008. He was previously Chief Executive, B&Q UK from June 2005. He was appointed Chief Executive International and Development in September 2002, Chief Executive of e-Kingfisher in May 2000 and was Group Director of Strategy & Development. Before joining Kingfisher he worked for a number of retail businesses including Sears plc where he was Group Commercial Director. He is also a member of the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change and a Member of the Employers’ Forum on Disability President’s Group.
He opposed the proposed expansion of Heathrow Airport, which is to his credit.
However on 18th October Ian Cheshire signed an open letter calling on the Chancellor to continue the coalition government's plans to reduce the public finance deficit in one term, plans which included swingeing cuts on the poorest members of society and which risk pushing this country into a double-dip recession, the likes of which has not been seen since, well since the last time the tories took power and tanked economy in the early 80's. It's a bit like trying to pay off your mortgage by not feeding your children, it can only make sense to an accountant.
For this reason Ian is considered a fully signed up member of the Big Business Society and we urge people to boycott his business Kingfisher PLC which trades as B&Q and Screwfix. It's not like you can't get anything they stock from HomeBase or a decent local hardware store or builders' merchants.
Update 28th October 2011
Business Week reported on 5th October here that Ian received a total of £1,972,100 in pay, bonuses and stock options from Kingfisher in the last year.
Ian has added another string to his bow since the original post. He was appointed to the Board of the Department of Work and Pensions as a non-Executive Director by Iain Duncan Smith. I'm sure the staff there feel really motivated knowing that one of their directors wanted them to be sacked just so he could line his pockets even more luxuriously.
This is the format I've sort of come up with. What do people think?
ReplyDeleteWorks for me. How about supplementing it with a quick glance who/what/where format alongside it? This might also open the way for a more flexible approach to content and style with the main body... Just thinking aloud though, and not really wanting to make anything more complicated than it need be.
ReplyDeleteReflexive,
ReplyDeleteI think that's a good idea but can you let me know more details about what you have in mind.
Thanks
George
Works for me!
ReplyDeleteI'd recommend
ReplyDeleteBoycott B&Q
after all, a boycott shouldn't just be for christmas!
Hello ViewFromTheBoundary,
ReplyDeleteGood Call. I had a problem with this one in that the '&' cannot from part of the title as the title forms the URL and characters like '&' cannot be part of URLs. This must by why B&Q's web site is at www.diy.com and not www.b&Q.com.
I do expect this problem with the others.
Something simple and generic that conforms across the 35 threads. As simple as the following at the top or bottom of each piece -
ReplyDeleteSignatory: ~~~~~~~
Companies to boycott: ~~~~~~~~~~~
Suggested alternative retailers: ~~~~~~~~~~
- although there may be something else I'm missing or that might develop as we go along. e.g. known political affiliations.
Another thought: most of these people will have a Wiki page that someone might want to edit to include the fact that they acted as signatory. Maybe even try adding a link to here from that..?
The poll idea is cool! Well done!
ReplyDelete