Sharon White: the economist shaking up John Lewis

Dame Sharon White had no experience of retail when she took the top job at the nation’s favourite department store. Can she turn around an ailing industry?

Dame Sharon White © John Lewis
(Image credit: © John Lewis)

When Dame Sharon White became chair of the John Lewis Partnership at the start of the year, she signalled her determination to be radical. The onslaught of Covid-19 has turbocharged that ambition, says The Daily Telegraph. Last month, White announced plans to shut a supposedly flagship store in the centre of Birmingham – a shocking but textbook response to predictions that up to 70% of department-store sales could be conducted online, even after the threat of the virus has passed. Now we learn that her strategic review will go much further. White’s plan to save the retailer includes ramping up its financial-services business, a move into horticulture and plans to turn some stores into affordable housing. Talk about “bringing down the curtain on the golden age of the department store”.

An industry rookie takes the helm

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.