Peter Davis

Who is Peter Davis?

Sir Peter John Davis is a British businessman, who was until June 2004, the chairman of J Sainsbury plc, which operates the UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's.

Davis was born in Cheshire on 23 December 1941, the son of John Stephen Davis and Adriaantje de Baat. He was educated at Shrewsbury School.

He worked for Sainsbury from 1976 to 1986 as marketing director and then assistant managing director. Between 1986 and 1994 he was chief executive and chairman of the publishing business Reed International and was involved in the merger with the Dutch scientific publisher Elsevier. He was chief executive of Prudential plc from 1995 having joined the company as a non-executive director. During this period, the company was condemned by the Treasury for mis-selling more pensions than any other firm. The Securities and Investments Board ordered the firm to retrain its entire sales staff, due to 'continuing and persistent breaches' of the standards of training for the sales force.

Davis was knighted in 1997 for services to training and industry.