Peace to leave Experian for Standard Chartered

Notts-born John Peace is leaving Experian after nearly 30 years. He has led a team which has created a $4bn business. Here, Mr Peace talks to business editor Richard Tresidder

"It has been one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make", said John Peace, the modest, quietly spoken founder of Experian.

He had just announced that he was relinquishing the chairmanship for the company he began, in Nottingham, in 1980 with just a handful of colleagues.

"I have agonised over this for a couple of weeks – I made the decision literally days ago – and I feel very sad", he said. "After 30 years, it will be quite a change."

Today, the business information group has around 12,000 employees around the world and turns over US$4bn (£2.4bn).

The former Sandhurst-trained soldier is to become chairman of Standard Chartered, a top ten FTSE company, where he has been acting chairman for six months.

"It was obvious where that was leading", he added.

But at 60, it was time to leave a company which has now come of age with its own Stock Exchange listing in the UK.

A new generation must take the company forward, free of those who conceived it.

"Experian is in fantastic shape. I care as much for Experian as I have ever cared for the business.

"It has a great management team in place in Nottingham, with its managing director Charlotte Hogg and the team, who are outstanding.

"But you reach a point in your career where it is time to move on. That is what I am doing.

"I am leaving the business in a phenomenal position and I am making way for the next generation.

"You have to recognise that it is time to move on. It allows a new generation to come through. You time it such that those people are in place first.

"I believe Experian has a world-class management team at the helm but I am not walking away from the family. I am just stopping being chairman."

Mr Peace joined the board of Standard Chartered two years ago.

"It is arguably one of the best banks in the world today. It is the bank that has gone through the credit crunch almost unscathed

"It's team were the people advising Gordon Brown and the chancellor last year on the recapitalisation of the banks.

"Although not a household name in the UK, its influence in the banking sector and the markets in which it operates in Asia, Africa and the Middle East is a very important banking organisation which is based here in the UK."

Standard Chartered is a client of Experian and the two companies have worked closely together.

And Mr Peace said he has agreed that, although he is leaving Experian, he will stay close to the company and management team over the next few years.

"Clearly I will have no conflict as the bank becomes one of Experian's major clients."

Mr Peace said he had joined Standard Chartered because of the opportunity it had to offer and because it complimented the work Experian has been undertaking in emerging markets.

Experian was founded in Talbot House, Nottingham, in 1980, as CCN using the data from Great Universal Stores and its subsidiary businesses such as furniture division Cavendish Woodhouse.

"CCN pulled all the data together to provide information and analytic services", recalled Mr Peace.

It was initially a credit checking business but today it is a business information group.

Its founders included Eric Barnes and John Saunders who were influential in shaping the business and taking it to where the company is today.

The major leap came in the mid-1990s when it merged with a similar company, based in California, to become Experian.

Mr Peace persuaded the board of parent GUS that it was the way forward for the business. It agreed the deal. Mr Peace joined the board of GUS, later becoming chief executive.

Three years ago, GUS was broken up and Experian came of age as a stand alone business, quoted in London.

The retail businesses, including Argos and Homebase, became a quoted company. Home Retail Group.

"I always knew there was a great opportunity there", said Mr Peace. "When I think back, what great people I had a chance to work with. It was the people who provide outstanding memories more than looking at sales or profits.

"Those were great benchmarks which any business needs, but what motivates me most is working with really great people.

"Did I think Experian would one day become a business with a turnover of $4bn? Probably not."