Clipsham joins the board at Pen Shop
THE man named the Non Executive Director of the Year 2008 by The Journal is to give his expertise to a North East company.
Newcastle-based The Pen Shop, Europe’s largest chain of writing instrument stores and one of only two pen shop chains in the world, has appointed David Clipsham as its new non-executive director.
Mr Clipsham, who lives in Northumberland, has joined the board of T&G Allan, the family owned company which trades as The Pen Shop.
An experienced manager of both large corporate and smaller entrepreneurial businesses in both the UK and Europe, the company said it wanted to benefit from Mr Clipsham’s wealth of knowledge as well as extensive strategic and marketing skills.
He was appointed non-executive chairman of Keenpac Ltd in 2003 and supervised a major acquisition, then growth of the £75m turnover firm before securing its sale and the profitable exit of the major investor.
Mr Clipsham first arrived in the North East as a marketing trainee at Procter and Gamble before becoming a marketing consultant.
At WH Smith, David was managing director and then chairman of Our Price Music where he grew the company and negotiated the acquisition of Virgin. As chairman of Paperchase, he turned around the business and was responsible for the review of WH Smith’s book-selling operation, leading to the acquisition of Waterstones. He became deputy chairman and went on to become managing director of Mercury Records.
His non-executive positions have also included that of chairman of Sound Control Ltd, Utlilita Ltd and Game plc.
At the North-East Businessman of the Year awards 2008, which are organised by The Journal and the Evening Gazette, David then in his capacity of non-executive chairman of Utilita Ltd was named Non-executive Director of the Year. He was the first winner of the award launched to mark the 25th anniversary of the North East Business Executive of the Year Awards.
He said: “I am absolutely delighted to be taking on this role and am looking forward to working with the board and being closely involved with The Pen Shop – an organisation that I have been keen to be involved with for some time. Over the course of my career I have worked for a number of large scale retail organisations and am confident that I can use my knowledge and experience as marketer and strategist to help guide and provide advice to the already excellent management team that run The Pen Shop day to day.”
T&G Allan managing director, Colin McClymont said: “We are genuinely enthused to have David on board and look forward to the contribution he will undoubtedly make. We know David will bring a wealth of skills to the post that will in turn help us continue to drive the organisation forward. I am very much looking forward to working with him.”
