Derek Lovelock – Executive Chairman

Derek joined Oasis Stores plc as Chief Executive in October 1999, becoming CEO of Aurora Fashions at its creation in March 2009 and moving to Executive Chairman in October 2009.

Prior to joining Oasis, Derek was CEO of the Clothing Division and a Board Director of Sears plc, where he had responsibility for Wallis, Warehouse, Miss Selfridge, Richards, Adams and the Outfit. Prior to joining Sears plc in 1992, he spent 8 years with Storehouse plc where, having spearheaded the creation of a fashion division that included brands such as Blazer, Jacadi and Anonymous, he was promoted to the board and given responsibility for Mothercare.

90 seconds with Derek

What was your first job in retail?
Working at my brother’s fabric shop
Who is your retail icon?
Sir Terence Conran - he exemplifies “retail is detail”
What was your last purchase?
Two pairs of shoes from Russell and Bromley
What keeps you awake at night?
Not sleeping!
What is the most satisfying part of your job?
Seeing good teams working well together
What is your favourite shop and why?
Selfridges – Never boring, always original. It’s always on trend and is a great retail theatre.
What is a typical working day for you?
Fun!
What is your favourite food?
Plain grilled steak – NO chips
What's your favorite film?
Airplane
What was the last song played on your i-Pod?
Tin Soldier - Small Faces

Mike Shearwood – CEO

Mike joined Mosaic Fashions in September 2007 as Deputy CEO and was promoted to CEO of the newly created Aurora Fashions in October 2009.

Prior to joining Mosaic Fashions, Mike was Managing Director of Inditex UK and Ireland, responsible for 7 brands, including Zara, Pull and Bear and Massimo Dutti with a turnover of £400m across 92 stores. Prior to Inditex, Mike held senior roles at Vision Express for 8 years, rising to Operations and Services Director.

90 seconds with Mike

What was your first job in retail?
Working in the shoe department at TJ Lewis in Bootle. It’s where I learnt the most valuable lesson in retail – the customer is King!
Who is your retail icon?
I have worked with some great people over the years, all of whom have given me different perspectives on retail. However our ultimate retail icons would have to be our customers.
What was your last purchase?
My i-Pad, which I love.
What keeps you awake at night?
Nothing I sleep like a log!
What is the most satisfying part of your job?
Helping people to grow and develop and surpass their expectations.
What is your favourite shop and why?
The Ferrari garage
What is a typical working day for you?
I wake up at 5am, travel in from Nottingham to London and arrive at the office at 7:45am. From then, every day is different. I can be working with all the brands in one day or just one or two of them. On Fridays I am always out in stores, it’s where I hear so much feedback from our teams and customers – it’s one of my favourite days of the week. If in the office I leave about 6:00pm which gets me home at about 8:30pm – now you see why nothing keeps me awake at night! I love my train journey as I catch up on emails and work, as well as speaking to the teams on the phone.
What is your favourite food?
Argentinean steak and chips
What’s your favorite film?
Great Escape
What was the last song played on your i-Pod?
Californication – Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Richard Glanville – CFO

Richard joined Oasis Stores plc as Finance Director, responsible for Finance, IT, Distribution, and Company Secretary in 2000. Richard is now CFO of Aurora Fashions with responsibility for the shared services operations in addition to his finance responsibilities.

Prior to Oasis, Richard was the IT Director of Hays Information Management. He is a qualified accountant and has experience in roles such as CFO at Richards Ltd., Commercial Director at Sears Clothing Ltd., IT Director at Comet Ltd. and Commercial Director at Mothercare Ltd.

90 seconds with Richard

What was your first job in retail?
Group Management Accountant at Habitat Mothercare, working in Terence Conran's very small corporate team.
Who is your retail icon?
Derek Lovelock, I've worked with Derek for over 20 years now, and to me he is one of the great all round retailers.
What was your last purchase?
A Paul Smith shirt, he’s my favourite designer. We’re of the same generation, and a lot of the images he references strike a deep chord from my earlier years.
What keeps you awake at night?
Everything......I'm a Finance Director, and it's my job to worry!
What is the most satisfying part of your job?
Developing people, I get immense satisfaction from helping members of my team conquer their weaknesses and develop their strengths.
What is your favourite shop and why?
Forbidden Planet on Shaftsbury Avenue. Before the advent of the world wide web and Amazon.com, Forbidden Planet was the only place fans could get hold of American Science Fiction novels, which came out months and years before the UK editions. Geeky I know!
What is a typical working day for you?
I catch the train just after 6am, catch up on a few emails on my i-Pad, and am in the office just before 7am. I enjoy some time to myself, organising my day, and then Derek and Mike arrive by 7:45am. We chat about what we did yesterday, and what’s on today before we start the day properly, normally with the first meeting at 8am. I look after a pretty diverse range of activities, so I’ll be in meetings most of the day on trade, finance, IT, logistics. I normally finish up about 6:30pm and get home around 7:30pm.
What is your favourite food?
Steak and chips
What’s your favorite film?
Lord of the Rings, I first read the books when I was 11. Films so often disappoint when you love a book so much but Peter Jackson seems to have achieved something on screen that has managed to match the mental image of everyone who's ever read them.
What was the last song played on your i-Pod?
Take these photos from my hand by Snow Patrol. I love their music and the lyrics and we see them live whenever we can.

Meg Lustman – Managing Director Warehouse

Meg joined Oasis Stores plc as Business Development Director in January 2000. Meg held this role for the group when it became Mosaic Fashions, before moving to Chief Strategy Officer for Aurora Fashions with responsibility for International and e-Commerce strategy. Meg was promoted to Managing Director of Warehouse in December 2009.

Prior to joining Oasis, Meg worked for over nine years in a number of strategic and international development roles within Spears plc, latterly as Commercial Director at Sears Clothing. In this role, Meg spearheaded the market entry of Wallis, Warehouse and Adams into numerous international markets.

90 seconds with Meg

What was your first job in retail?
Working in the food hall in Barkers of Kensington. I fell in love with the pace and variety of retail…and with the exchange between customer and retailer.
Who is your retail icon?
As MD of Warehouse, I have a huge respect and admiration for Jeff Banks who had the brilliant vision to create this fabulous brand 35 years ago.
What was your last purchase?
A Starbucks coffee and croissant!
What keeps you awake at night?
News at Ten.
What is the most satisfying part of your job?
My team and the passionate people that I work with.
What is your favourite shop and why?
Liberty of London. There’s nothing like it. I love its style - from its interior to its collection through to its service. There’s no better gift than a gorgeous Liberty gift coin!
What is a typical working day for you?
I wake up at 5:30am and leave the house at 7am (clearly, I like to prepare myself for the day in a leisurely fashion!).
I arrive at the office at 7:45am; look at the numbers and catch up on emails and Facebook comments that have come in overnight.
Meetings tend to start from 8:30am between which I walk around to catch up with the teams and make sure they are ok – you can tell so much simply in the way that they respond to a simple question!
I eat lunch at my desk or in a meeting – not healthy but I haven’t broken out of this bad habit… yet!
I try to leave the office around 6pm-ish so that I am home before 7pm.
I try to spend a day in branches at least once a week so that I know what is happening at the “sharp end” of our business and to ensure that the plans that we make in central office make sense when they come through at the other end.
What is your favourite food?
Eggs Florentine
What’s your favorite film?
The Big Easy
What was the last song played on your i-Pod?
St Dominic’s Preview by Van Morrison

Stewart Binnie – Non-Executive President

Stewart has been Non – Executive President of Aurora since its creation in March 2009 and was Chairman of Mosaic Fashions from 2001. In addition to this he is also Chairman of Schroder Ventures Asia Pacific Trust and is a member of the investment committee of Schroders' Private Equity Fund of Funds business and the Industrial Advisory Board of SVG's public equities business. He is member of the board of the Edinburgh International Festival and a director of the Traverse Theatre.

Stewart was previously UK Senior Partner at Schroder Finance Partners and was also a Partner at Schroder Ventures where he focused on investment activities in retail, media and financial services. His experience in UK retailing includes five years as Managing Director of Hatchards and eight years in senior buying and marketing roles at W H Smith.

Johann Reyndal

Pall Olafsson

Pall joined Kaupthing in October 2003 as a research analyst and joined Investment Banking June 2004 where he was involved in M&A, IPOs and other capital raisings. Since 2009, Pall has worked for Kaupthing’s resolution committee overseeing the bank’s investments in fashion retail.

Pall has an MSc in Investment Management from Cass Business School and a BSc both in Finance and Accounting from the University of Iceland.

Fabian Mansson

Fabian has been an active industry advisor since 2008 and is also a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company. Fabian has previously held roles as President and Chief Executive of Eddie Bauer and CEO Worldwide H&M Hennes & Mauritz, in addition to serving as an advisor to the managements of Hugo Boss and Mavi Jeans.