Gerald Corbett

Gerald Michael Nolan Corbett DL (born 7 September 1951) is a businessman who is the current chairman of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). A businessman, over a long career he has been a director of thirteen public companies, seven of which he has chaired, most recently Betfair plc from 2012-2016. He is currently chairman of Segro plc, the international industrial & property logistics group and Britvic plc, the international soft drinks company whose brands include Robinsons squash, J2O, Tango, Fruit Shoot, Ballygowan water and is also a bottler for PepsiCo. As chairman he led the floatation of Britvic in 2005.

He was chairman of Moneysupermarket.com plc between 2007 when he led the floatation until April 2014. He chaired Towry, the wealth advisory business between 2012 and 2014 and was a non-executive director of Numis plc, the stockbroking and investment banking business based in the City from 2008. He took over the chair at Numis in 2014.

In 2005 he became Chairman of SSL International plc, the consumer healthcare group, whose major brands included Durex and Scholl, sold in over 50 countries. In 2010 he negotiated the sale of SSL to Reckitt Benckiser for £2.5 billion, a gain of 400% on the share price 5 years previously.

He was Chairman of Action on Hearing Loss between 2007 and 2013 (formerly known as the Royal National Institute of the Deaf), the UK’s largest charity for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. He is Chairman of the Hertfordshire Community Foundation and Chairman of the St Albans Cathedral Music Trust. He Chairs the St Albans Cathedral Appeal "Alban Britain's First Saint". He was High Sheriff of Hertfordshire for 2010/11 and served on the Council of the Shrieval Association between 2008-2012.

David Freud described him in his book "Freud in the City" as "immensely approachable, a short and jovial figure, full of impromptu quips relayed to the accompaniment of short, barks of laughter" He had an executive career which covered many years as a Finance Director (he was one of the longest serving members of the 100 Group of FTSE Finance Directors) prior to a controversial spell as Chief Executive of Railtrack, the infrastructure part of the Tory Government’s Railway privatisation.

Corbett attended Tonbridge School, before studying history at Cambridge University, where he was a foundation scholar. After this, he attended London and Harvard business schools before joining Boston Consulting Group, which advises on corporate strategy, in the mid-70s. In 1982, he joined electrical retailer Dixons, where he became group Financial Controller and Corporate Finance Director.

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