Tim Parker (businessman)

Timothy Charles Parker (born 19 June 1955) is a British executive.

He has been chairman of the National Trust, Post Office Ltd and Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS).

Parker was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, in 1955.

The son of an army officer, he spent much of his childhood abroad.

He was educated at Abingdon School in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, leaving in 1973.

He attended Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was chairman of the Oxford University Labour Club.

He has an MA in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford (1977), and an MSc in business studies from the London Business School (1981).

After graduating from Oxford, Parker worked as a junior economist in HM Treasury from 1977 to 1979.

In 1981, after obtaining his business degree, he joined Thorn EMI as assistant to Sir William Barlow, chairman of the engineering group.

At the age of 26, he was appointed CEO of Blakeslee, a small engineering subsidiary of Thorn EMI in Chicago.

After two years he had the business sold off as lacking in scalability.

Returning to the UK, he headed Crypto Peerless, a Birmingham company manufacturing foodservice equipment, which in a little over two years he took from break-even to £800,000 in profits.

From 1986 to 2014, he was successively the CEO of Kenwood, Clarks Shoes, Kwik-Fit, the AA and Samsonite.

In 1986, he was appointed CEO of the appliance manufacturer Kenwood.

In 1989 he led a management-based leveraged buyout of the business, with backing from the private-equity firm Candover Investments; the company was purchased for £52 million.

It was listed on London Stock Exchange in 1992 at a valuation of £104 million.

In 1996, Parker became CEO of Clarks Shoes.

He substantially reorganised the company, closed 20 factories, moved manufacturing overseas, and revived the Clarks brand with more up-to-date shoe styles.

Within six years, the company's profitability increased by 150%, and by the time he left, in 2002, it had revenues approaching £1 billion a year.

In August 2002, he was hired as CEO of Kwik-Fit, after CVC Capital Partners acquired the company from Ford.

He undertook a major restructuring of the business, including cutting 3,000 jobs.

During his tenure as CEO, profits increased by 250%.

In 2004, CVC Capital Partners and Permira purchased the AA from Centrica for £1.75 billion, and Parker was appointed CEO.

During the next two years, he carried out a fundamental restructuring programme and one-third of the company's 10,000 jobs were cut in the process.

Parker was subsequently dubbed the "Prince of Darkness" by trade unions.

The AA's EBITDA increased from £120 million in 2004 to £305 million in 2007.

The business was sold to PAI Partners in 2005 for £800 million, with Parker earning £20 million from the deal.

In 2007, the AA merged with Saga at an enterprise value of £3.35 billion.

CVC Capital Partners had acquired Samsonite in July 2007, and the ensuing financial crisis of 2007–2008 hit the luggage company hard due to the declines in international air travel and consumer spending; 2008 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation collapsed from $120 million to only $40 million globally.

Parker was brought in to turn the company around.

He restructured the company, replaced its management, cut jobs, closed stores, and invested funds in new suitcase designs and marketing.

From 7 July to 19 August 2008, Parker was first deputy mayor of London, under Boris Johnson.

He was also chairman of Transport for London and CEO of the Greater London Authority during that period, before resigning.

In November 2008, he was appointed non-executive chairman of Samsonite, and was made CEO in January 2009.

In 2009, he was the lead investor in the private-equity acquisition of British Pathé, and the historic film archive launched a newly established and dedicated London office, and a new, updated, quicker, and simpler website.

He remains a director and owner of the British Pathé film archive.

In 2010, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation revived to $192 million.

The company was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in June 2011, raising $1.25 billion in the IPO.

Following his appointment to the National Trust, in August 2014 Parker resigned as CEO of Samsonite, effective 1 October 2014; he remained on as non-executive chairman of the company.

In 2014 Parker was appointed chairman of the National Trust, an unpaid role.