Alannah Weston

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Alannah Weston
Born
Alannah Elizabeth Weston [1]

(1972-01-08) January 8, 1972 (age 52)
Dublin, Leinster, Ireland
Nationality
Alma mater Merton College, Oxford
OccupationBusinesswoman
SpouseAlex Cochrane
Parents
Relatives

Alannah Elizabeth Weston (born January 8, 1972) is an Irish-Canadian [2] businesswoman who is the former chairman [3] of the Selfridges Group. [4] [5] [6] She is a member of the Weston family and serves as a director of the family's holding company, Wittington Investments. [7]

Contents

Background

Weston was born in Dublin, Ireland, on January 8, 1972. She is the elder child of Galen Weston and his wife, Hilary. She has one sibling, younger brother Galen Weston Jr. She is a citizen of both Ireland and Canada. [2]

She is married to Alex Cochrane (an architect and the elder son of Sir Marc Cochrane, 4th Baronet), with whom she has two children. Weston lives with her family in London. [5] [1] [8] [9]

Career

Weston studied English literature at Merton College, Oxford. After graduation, she worked as a journalist at The Daily Telegraph, Tatler, and British Vogue. She left journalism in 1999 to work for Rose Marie Bravo at luxury fashion brand Burberry, where she was head of press. In 2001, Weston left Burberry to establish her own design agency, Zephyr Projects. [8] [10]

In 2004, Weston became creative director of Selfridges department store in London. She was appointed deputy chair of the Selfridges Group in 2014 and joined the board of directors of George Weston Limited in 2016. She became the chair of the Selfridges Group in 2019. As a member of the Weston family, she was ranked tenth on the 2021 Sunday Times Rich List. Weston's family is estimated to have personal wealth of approximately €11 billion. [11] [12]

In August 2022, Weston stepped down as chairman of Selfridges Group upon the sale of the business to Thai conglomerate Central Group and Austria's Signa Holding. [13] [14]

Philanthropy

From 2012 to 2017, Weston was a director of the Blue Marine Foundation, a British marine conservation charity. [2] She led the Selfridges Group Foundation and is a trustee of the Garfield Weston Foundation. [12] [6] She is also a director of the Reta Lila Howard Foundation, [15] which is named after her paternal grandmother.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Alannah Elizabeth Weston". Companies House. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 "Alannah WESTON". Companies House. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  3. ↑ "Alannah Weston departs Selfridges Group". Grocery Business. August 22, 2022.
  4. ↑ "W Galen Weston, Canadian retail tycoon behind Selfridges, dies at 80". The Guardian. April 13, 2021.
  5. 1 2 Bochove, Danielle (April 13, 2021). "Galen Weston, businessman behind Brown Thomas, dies aged 80". Irish Examiner.
  6. 1 2 Times, The Sunday (May 17, 2023). "The Weston family net worth — Sunday Times Rich List 2021" – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  7. ↑ "Alannah Weston". Companies House. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  8. 1 2 "Retail princess Alannah Weston, a maverick impresario". The Globe and Mail. December 15, 2010.
  9. ↑ "Alannah Weston: the Dublin-born retail heiress preparing for a €4.7bn bonanza pay day". independent. July 30, 2021.
  10. ↑ "Alannah Weston is part of the BoF 500". The Business of Fashion.
  11. ↑ Paor, Blathin de (May 24, 2021). "Alannah Weston - Inside life of Dublin mum who has made an €11 billion fortune". RSVP Live.
  12. 1 2 Telford, Thomas (May 24, 2021). "Meet the Dublin woman worth €11 billion and how she made her enormous fortune". DublinLive.
  13. ↑ "Alannah Weston departs Selfridges Group". Grocery Business. August 22, 2022.
  14. ↑ "Selfridges sold to Thai and Austrian alliance in $5 billion deal". December 24, 2021.
  15. ↑ "Alannah Cochrane". Companies House. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
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