WALKER
Richard

• 1. Career
• 2. Personal Life

Richard Walker (born August 1980) is the Managing Director of Iceland Foods, a British supermarket chain, with emphasis on the sale of frozen foods, including prepared meals and vegetables. He is the son of Sir Malcolm Walker, the supermarket's founder and Executive Chairman.

Career

After graduating from Durham University in 2001 with a degree in geography, Richard joined the property investment team at Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). He moved to Poland with JLL in 2005 and then left the company to develop his own property business in Poland and the UK. In 2009, he established Bywater Properties, a London-based company focused on cross-sector UK property investment and development, of which Richard remains Chairman.

Richard joined Iceland Foods in 2012, working full-time as a shelf-stacker and cashier in Iceland stores in London for a year, before becoming a store manager in Swiss Cottage and moving to Iceland head office, in 2013.

After various roles in head office, Richard became Managing Director of The Food Warehouse, Iceland Foods' chain of more than 70 larger format stores, where he led the expansion of the chain across the UK.

Richard was Iceland's Director for Sustainability during the announcement that the supermarket would remove palm oil from all its own brand foods. He also announced the pledge to make Iceland Foods the first major retailer in the world to eliminate plastic packaging from all its own brand products.

In August 2018, Richard was promoted to his current role as Managing Director of Iceland Foods.

Richard is a Trustee of the Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation and the conservation group Fauna & Flora International. He also sits on DEFRA's Council for Sustainable Business.

Personal Life

Richard is active and enjoys surfing in his spare time. He has also climbed the North Col of Mount Everest, Mount Kilimanjaro and in 2017 visited Kyrgyzstan where he notched up several accents of previously unclimbed mountains - one of which he named Peak Rhianydd in honour of his mother.