Laura Wade-Gery


Laura Wade-Gery is a British business executive.

Early life

Wade-Gery was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and Magdalen College, Oxford, where she studied history and also achieved an ice-hockey blue. As a student she accompanied William Dalrymple on a journey across Asia which is described in Dalrymple's book In Xanadu. Dalrymple has said of Wade-Gery: “Stories of her feats of endurance were common currency; if half of them were true, she had by the age of 21 made Freya Stark look like a dilettante.... When travelling with her I could never decide whether she reminded me more of Boadicea or Joyce Grenfell..."

Career

After working at Gemini Consulting and Kleinwort Benson, Wade-Gery joined Tesco in 1997 and rose to become chief executive of its online business. She was to have become commercial director of Tesco's non-food operation in 2011 but instead joined the board of Marks & Spencer as executive director of multi-channel e-commerce. She is also a member of the British Government's Digital Advisory Board, a trustee of the Royal Opera House, and a director of Snape Maltings Trading Limited.
On 1 August 2018 Laura Wade-Gery became a non-executive director of NHS Improvement.