Ruby McGregor-Smith

Ruby McGregor-Smith, Baroness McGregor-Smith, (Ahmad; born 22 February 1963), is a British business executive and politician.

McGregor-Smith was born in 1963 in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, in northern India.

She moved to England aged two with her mother, joining her father who was training as an accountant in London.

She grew up in Bayswater, White City and Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow, attending Bentley Wood High School and Lowland Sixth Form College before graduating from Kingston Polytechnic in 1985 with a degree in economics.

After qualifying, she joined Serco Group PLC in 1991, where she worked for nine years in a range of operational and financial roles.

McGregor-Smith joined Mitie as group financial director in 2002 and was promoted to CEO in 2007.

She was the only Asian female chief executive of a FTSE 250 company at this time.

In 2002, after a brief spell at the facilities management firm Service Group International (SGI), McGregor-Smith joined Mitie Group PLC as group financial director.

In 2005 she was promoted to group chief operating officer, and became CEO two years later when her predecessor Ian Stewart retired to take over the role of deputy chairman.

As the first Asian female chief executive of a FTSE 250 company, the appointment received extensive press coverage.

McGregor-Smith was the former CEO of Mitie Group PLC, a UK facilities management business, from 2007 to 2016.

She was awarded a CBE in 2012 for services to business and promoting diversity.

During the decade she spent at Mitie, the firm increased its turnover by £1.5bn billion, which passed the £2bn mark for the first time in 2012.

In January 2014, she was made a member of the Prime Minister's Holocaust Commission.

In February 2014 she was appointed a UK Business Ambassador for UKTI.

She was nominated as a Conservative life peer in August 2015.

She was nominated as a Conservative life peer in August 2015 for services to British Business and took her seat in the House of Lords on 16 October 2015.

In December 2015, she was appointed non-executive board member of the Department for Education, a position she currently holds.

She was appointed by the then Business Secretary Sajid Javid, to voluntarily lead a review looking at the issues faced by businesses in developing black and minority ethnic (BME) talent from when they start work through to the executive level.

Upon her appointment to the House of Lords in 2015, after eight years as Chief Executive, McGregor-Smith asked the Mitie board to begin the process of looking for a replacement as Chief Executive.

In May 2015 she appeared before senior officials at HMRC to discuss complaints that MiHomecare, a company owned by Mitie, was failing to pay its employees the minimum wage.

In October 2016 a handover period with new CEO Phil Bentley began, ending in December 2016.

In October 2016 a handover period with new CEO Phil Bentley began, ending in December 2016.

In September 2016 shares in Mitie plunged 26% to a four-year low after the company warned that profits would be "very significantly lower" due to "lower UK growth rates and public sector budget constraints".

In common with much of the sector, Mitie faced pressures in 2016/17 and issued profits warnings.

In October 2016 McGregor-Smith announced that she was stepping down from the CEO role and would hand over to Phil Bentley, the former Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) chief executive.

Shares in the company closed 2.52pc higher as investors reacted positively to the news of Ms McGregor-Smith’s departure.

Internal initiatives at Mitie in which McGregor-Smith has personal involvement include 'Mitie's Got Talent', a company-wide talent contest; and 'Mitie Millions', at which she and Finance Director Suzanne Baxter judge budding entrepreneurs with up to £5m to invest in the winners.

She held a non-executive position on the board of recruitment firm Michael Page and currently holds a position as Senior Adviser to Mace Group Ltd and Chairperson of the facilities management outsourcing firm Q3 Services Group.

In July 2017 she was appointed to the House of Lords EU Market Committee which looks at the impact of EU Regulation on business.

Her report 'Race in the Workplace: The McGregor-Smith Review' was published in February 2017 and found that UK growth was being curtailed by £24bn due to poor practices.

It has led to a step-change in action by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in this area.

She described herself as a 'reluctant remainer' and voted against the Conservative Party whip at Report Stage of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill in support amendments on the EEA and Customs Union.

However, after the Commons had considered these Lords Amendments and rejected them, she joined all but 21 Conservative peers and supported the Government and the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill at ping-pong.

She ceased to have any financial interest in Mitie on 17 August 2017.

McGregor-Smith's tenure as CEO initially saw Mitie's top and bottom lines grow, boosted by strong demand for integrated services, but ended with the issuing of a profit warning and a substantial drop in performance.

On 18 July 2018 it was announced that McGregor-Smith was putting her name forward as the Conservative Party's candidate for Mayor of London.

She came 4th out of ten candidates who were long-listed, narrowly missing out on being one of the three to be selected by the Conservative membership as the final candidate.

Following university, McGregor-Smith trained for six years as an accountant at BDO Stoy Hayward.

In July 2019, PM Theresa May appointed McGregor-Smith as Chair to the Office for Tackling Injustices (OfTI).