Soon-to-be former Managing Director of Waitrose Mark Price is to be made a Foreign Office Trade Minister in David Cameron‘s government.
Mark “The Chubby Grocer” Price has been a part of the John Lewis Partnership for 30 years, but this year will move on to pastures new. He will not be alone amongst the career politicians of Westminister, however; Cameron has brought many businessmen and women into his government, including Jim O‘Neill, a fellow retailer to Price and former Boss of Tesco.
In addition to this new government appointment, Price has also been tipped to take over as Chair of Channel 4, where he has worked as a Deputy Chairman since 2013.
In the past Mr Price has been an advocate of employee-centric business models, and ensuring businesses have a responsibility to the societies in which they operate.
“Smart societies cannot be created without fairness, equality and enfranchisement and business has a crucial role to play here,” said Price, speaking in November. “Society, quite rightly, expects a lot in return from business for the privileges it is afforded. It‘s time we all delivered the goods and, in return, we will all benefit from the significantly improved performance.”
Will this transfer into Conservative economic policy? As a business focused on people, it may well be beneficial to have more retailers in the House of Commons.
