back to Awards & NomineesThe Inspiration Awards - Kim Winser, OBE

PRESIDENT & CEO, AQUASCUTUM

Kim Winser, OBE was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of the British luxury fashion brand,

Aquascutum, in April 2006 with a brief to significantly increase turnover and turn the loss making business to profit by 2010. In her first year she launched a highly acclaimed new advertising campaign with Pierce Brosnan and more recently with influential model Giselle Bundchen - a clear statement of intent with regard to her global aspirations for the business. Since that time Winser has formed a new global board of experienced and talented senior directors, introduced new collections which have been successfully introduced to top accounts and put in place a vitally important accessory division which will launch in 2008.

Prior to this appointment, Winser was most recently associated with the turnaround of Pringle of Scotland.

Appointed to the role of CEO following its takeover in 2000, Winser "morphed one of the oldest fashion labels in the world from frumpy to fabulous in less than five years" (The Herald, March 2005). She developed a powerful brand strategy, reined the international licenses back in-house and worked on growing the brand internationally by identifying Pringle's key global markets. She launched a retail division, opening flagship stores in Bond Street and Sloane Street, London and across the world. She hired creative

director Clare Waight Keller to heighten the luxury position of the collections for the runway and markets worldwide.

Before joining Pringle, Winser was the only female director of Marks& Spencer where she ran the womenswear division. Under her direction, the women's business grew substantially in sales, market share and profit. She joined M&S in 1977 as a management trainee and during her time there held such senior positions as executive director for menswear and divisional director of the womenswear group. She was also responsible for setting up the first marketing group for the company and was appointed director with Brooks Brothers in New York under the Marks & Spencer ownership.

Kim Winser is listed number three in the Wall Street Journal Europe's most successful business women;

she is one of Business Week's most innovative businesswomen in Britain; and Fortune Magazine and Management Today have both named Winser as one of the most powerful women in business.

She works with HRH Prince Charles with The Prince's Trust and CHAS (children's hospice) alongside Ewan McGregor. Winser was awarded an honorary Doctorate by Heriot-Watt University in 2003 for services to industry. She was honored by The Queen with an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 2006 for her contributions to the fashion industry. She was born in 1959 in Helensburgh, Scotland and educated at Purbrook Grammar School in Hampshire.