Gerry Robinson

Sir Gerrard Jude "Gerry" Robinson (born 23 October 1948, Dunfanaghy, County Donegal, Ireland) is an Irish-born British business executive and television presenter. He is the former non-executive Chairman of Allied Domecq and the ex-Chairman/chief executive of Granada.

The ninth of 10 children born to Anthony and Elizabeth Robinson, an Irish father and a Scottish mother, Robinson moved with his family to England from County Donegal in his early teens. He briefly trained to become a Catholic priest at St. Mary's Seminary of the Holy Ghost Fathers at Castlehead, Grange-over-Sands, Lancashire. He began a career in accounting in 1965 as a clerk with the Matchbox Toys company. While with the firm, he progressed through various accounting roles to become Chief Management Accountant in 1974. He also, during that time, qualified as an Associate Chartered Management Accountant.

In 1974, he left Matchbox to work for Lex Vehicle Leasing as a management accountant. He then rose through the company before being appointed finance director. In 1980, he joined the UK franchise of Coca Cola, owned at that time by Grand Metropolitan. In 1983 he was appointed managing director of Grand Metropolitan's international services division. In 1987 he led the successful £163m management buyout of the loss-making contract services and catering division of Compass Group, known as Compass Caterers. He joined Granada as CEO in 1991, and soon ousted Granada's chairman, David Plowright in 1992, which led John Cleese to call Robinson "an upstart caterer cunt".

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