Nick was appointed CEO of Joules in 2019. He has over 25 years’ experience in developing retail brands and strategy. He started his career at Marks & Spencer where he held a number of senior and director roles.
Prior to joining Joules, he was SVP-Commercial at Asda and a member of the Executive Board, having previously been Managing Director of George.
During his time at Asda, Nick was responsible for the performance of the grocer’s trading divisions across food, general merchandise and clothing, and helped drive significant innovation and digital transformation across the business.
Nick is an alumnus of Harvard University, having completed a Personal Leadership and Development course at Harvard Business School.
At M&S Nick worked in the corporate area, and experienced the luxury of the carpet and the quality of the crockery.
He also worked alongside retail legends like Sir Stuart Rose - who led with clarity. He experienced the energy and momentum that's created by a common purpose. When you speak to those who have worked for the likes of Allan Leighton and Archie Norman (Asda legends), people don't really remember the results, they remember how it felt to be part of the team.
At Joules now, Tom the founder of the business is still involved. A combination of his passion and the clarity he and his team has brought to the brand, is still clear today. It hasn't had to reinvent itself like many brands, who lose their way.
Nick gets fired up and motivated by where the company is going, and the importance of shared values that you live by. You don't say one thing and do something else.
He really enjoys learning and understanding how he reacts, unless you go and find out you'll never know.
He gets a lot of energy from speaking to people from across the organisation. Which has been challenging over the pandemic.
He now leads a hybrid team who are based at home and increasingly moving back into a brand new office. It is the first time in 12 years that all of the Joules functions will be under one roof, having occupied various offices in and around the area.
They've learned a lot over the past 15 months, that they can create product, acquire a business, open shops and close shops - all remotely.
They are now developing a fully flexible approach for colleagues who decide how much time the work from home and in the office. Making sure that work fits into their broader life.
Core hours are 10am-4pm - with no meetings held outside of those hours. Which then allows people the opportunity to flex their time around the start and end of the day to take the kids to school or walk the dog.
As he looks ahead, his hopes for the future - he says the business has a much stronger connection with colleagues in stores.
He wants to ensure everyone feels they are in it together. Finding the balance is going to be key, and by the end of the year he thinks they'll have found their rhythm in terms of hybrid working.
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