Timothy David Dalton Philips is an Irish businessman. He was the CEO of the UKsupermarket chainMorrisons from January 2010 until March 2015, when he was succeeded by David Potts. He is currently the chief executive of daa, the Irish state-owned global airports and travel retail group which runs Dublin and Cork airports.
His retailing career began in New Zealand, where he began as a store manager. He then had 11 jobs in 14 countries, including an appointment to Jardine Matheson's Dairy Farm International. He joined Walmart in 1998, and after working in Brazil, rose to the position of Chief Operating Officer in Germany. He then joined the Weston family retail operation as CEO of upmarket Irish department store group Brown Thomas in 2007, and then becoming Chief Operating Officer of Canadian retailer Loblaw in January 2007, under Allan Leighton. After Morrisons CEO Marc Bolland announced his departure to Marks and Spencers in December 2009, Philips was appointed in a surprise move as his replacement in January 2010. However, Leighton worked with Morrisons chairman Sir Ian Gibson during his tenure at Asda, and is good friends with founder Sir Ken Morrison. At Morrisons annual AGM in June 2014, Morrisons former chairman Sir Ken Morrison blasted Phillips and his new board of directors for their running of the company Morrison inherited from his father. Morrison's comments were backed up by his nephew Chris Blundell, who controls most of the remaining family stake in the supermarket, also told the board it needed rescuing, and welcomed the decision by chairman Sir Ian Gibson to leave the business next year after months of pressure. In January 2015, it was announced that Philips would be stepping down as CEO. Philips, as well as being the former chairman of Byron, and of The Ridgeon Group, is currently a Senior Advisor with The Boston Consulting Group, and is a Non-Executive Director of three other boards: industrial plastic group One51 Plc., the UK High Street retailer Wilko, and the Social Innovation Fund, a provider of growth capital to Irish social enterprises. In October 2017, after moving back to his native Ireland from Yorkshire, Philips was became chief executive of daa, a global airports and travel retail group owned by the Irish State and headquartered at Dublin Airport. Philips has other business interests including a number of non-executive directorships, and is known to have a public Christian profile.
