Jacqueline Gold
| Jacqueline Gold | |
|---|---|
Jacqueline Gold (centre) at a photo shoot, New Oxford Street, London.
|
|
| Born |
16 July 1960 Bromley, Kent |
| Residence | Whyteleafe, Surrey |
| Nationality |
 United Kingdom
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| Occupation | Business executive and entrepreneur |
| Net worth | £500m in 2015. |
| Spouse(s) | Dan Cunningham (m. 2010) |
| Parent(s) |
David Gold Beryl née Hunt (d. 2003) |
| Awards |
_Ribbon.png){kind=small} CBE (2016) |
| Website | www.jacquelinegold.com |
Jacqueline Summers Gold, CBE (born 16 July 1960) is a British businesswoman who is Chief Executive of Gold Group International,Ann Summers and Knickerbox.
Gold is estimated to be the 16th richest woman in Great Britain.
Gold was born on 16 July 1960, the daughter of Beryl Hunt and businessman David Gold. Her father ran a publishing business which introduced sex magazines to the British high street. David apparently wept when Jacqueline was born to his first wife, because he wanted a son. She and her sister grew up in a spacious three-story house with a large garden and a swimming pool at Biggin Hill, Kent. In August 2007, she was the main participant of the second episode of the BBC Radio 4 series, The House I Grew Up In, in which she described an unhappy childhood. Her parents separated when she was twelve years old.
After school, Jacqueline began working for Royal Doulton, but decided she did not want to go into management, and asked her father to help her gain some extra work experience. Having acquired the four stores of the Ann Summers chain in 1972, her father gave Jacqueline, at the age of nineteen, summer work experience in May 1979 – Jacqueline was paid £45 a week, less than the tea lady.
Jacqueline also didn't like the atmosphere at Ann Summers, which was David Gold's "upmarket clean" sex shop. Gold says of her introduction: "It wasn't a very nice atmosphere to work in. It was all men, it was the sex industry as we all perceive it to be". But, a chance invitation and visit to a Tupperware party at an East London flat in 1981 changed everything – Jacqueline saw the potential of selling sexy lingerie and sex toys to women in the privacy of their own homes. Jacqueline launched the Ann Summers Party Plan – a home marketing plan for sex toys, with a strict "no men allowed" policy. This type of party, which provides women with a forum to meet and talk about sex (and other matters), became so popular that such parties are now regarded as part of British popular culture; this format also provides the company with a convenient way of circumventing legal restrictions about displaying sex toys for sale.
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Wikipedia