Richard Baker (British businessman, born 1962)

Baker graduated from Downing College, Cambridge.^{[citation needed]}

Baker worked at Mars Confectionery for nearly 10 years, working his way up to sales and marketing director.^[2][3] He joined Asda Stores Ltd in 1995,^[4] where he worked for nine years, becoming Marketing Director in 1999,^[5] and ultimately chief operating officer in 2002, following their acquisition by Walmart.^[6]

In September 2003, Baker joined Boots Group as chief executive officer.^[7] The company had been reporting losses following its ill-advised move into its 'Wellbeing' services.^[8][9] Despite implementing a number of cost-cutting measures and extending opening hours, the company continued to struggle until October 2005 it announced it was to merge with competitor Alliance Unichem.^[10] The announcement met with widespread opposition, but the merger was cleared by the OFT in February 2006 and completed in July that year.^[11][12] Baker became chief executive officer of the new Alliance Boots GmbH.^[13]

In April 2007, after publishing annual results that showed a profit increase of 7.4%, Alliance Boots was sold to private equity firm KKR for £11.1 billion; the highest price ever paid by a private equity company for a British public company.^[14][15] Baker left the company on completion of the transaction.^[16]

From 2008 to 2014, Baker served as non-executive chairman of Virgin Active.^[17] From 2009 to 2017, he served as chairman of the European Division of Groupe Aeroplan.^[18][19] From 2010 to 2018, he served as chairman of DFS.^[20] From 2014 to 2018, he served as non-executive director of Whitbread.^[21][22]

In June 2019, Baker launched his own private equity firm, BD-Capital.^[1]