Sir Keith Mills

Sir Keith Mills
Mills in July 2010.
Born	May 1950 (age 67)
Residence	Kent
Nationality	British
Occupation	Businessman
Net worth	GB£ 125 million
Spouse(s)	Maureen Mills

Sir Keith Edward Mills GBE DL (born 15 May 1950) is an English entrepreneur and deputy chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Mills was born in Brentwood. He attended Brentwood St Martin's County Secondary School for Boys on Hanging Hill Lane in Hutton, Brentwood.

Mills worked for over twenty years in marketing and advertising. Having left school with no qualifications, he started with The Economist at the age of fifteen as a copy assistant and then at the Financial Times and Investors Chronicle, where he was responsible for their marketing programmes. From there he moved into advertising in London. In 1981, he led a management buyout of the London office of the New York-based company Nadler & Larimer, becoming the chief executive. In 1985 he found Mills, Smith & Partners. He is also a non-executive director at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

In 2011, Mills was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Laws) from the University of Bath

Sir Keith is chiefly known for inventing the Air Miles (in 1988) and Nectar Card (in 2002) loyalty card schemes.

Air Miles was set up in 1988 when Sir Keith started the Loyalty Management Group, then known as Air Miles International Group BV. He had the idea in 1987 when working at his advertising agency, which had Shell and British Caledonian as clients who were looking to make the most of their customer base without devaluing the image of the products. People would buy Air Miles from Shell petrol to use on British Caledonian. He approached British Airways and they liked the idea. He then sold similar ideas to in the USA and Canada, moving to the USA in 1990. In 1993, the US Air Miles system collapsed, costing him £15m. In 1994, his 49% sharehold of the scheme was sold to British Airways, although he still retains the intellectual property rights.