Paul Steven Walsh (born 15 May 1955) is an English businessman who is the executive chairman of the McLaren Group. He was the chief executive of Diageo, the world's largest whisky company, for twelve years between 2000 and 2013.
Walsh was criticised in the press for what was seen as his excessive remuneration, but received admiration for his ability to build brands. He spent the majority of his career at Diageo and its precursor Grand Metropolitan. His most notable decision was the acquisition of the Seagram drinks company, which added Captain Morgan rum and Crown Royal Canadian whisky to Diageo's roster of brands.
Walsh's tenure in charge of Diageo closely mirrored his behaviour as head of the Pillsbury food business: selling off non-essential assets such as Burger King and aggressively marketing a select number of "core" brands. He was disciplined regarding prices paid for the acquisition of assets. Towards the end of his Diageo career, he increased the company's exposure to developing markets such as India and China.
In February 2014 Walsh became the non-executive chairman of Compass Group, the world's largest catering company. His role as an advisor to Diageo ended in September 2014.
Early life
Walsh was born in Middleton, and raised in the former mill town of Chadderton, Lancashire, in the North West of England. The only child of Arthur and Anne Walsh, his father was a pipe fitter who later ran a small thermal engineering company, and his mother was a housewife. Walsh believes that he inherited his work ethic from his father, his organisational skills from his mother, and his confidence from both parents, who he has described as "strict" but "loving". His great grandfather emigrated from Ireland, hence he bears the common Irish surname of Walsh.
Walsh was educated at his local comprehensive, the Royton and Crompton School, followed by Oldham College. He initially aspired to become a fighter pilot after becoming influenced by his "hero", a mathematics teacher who had been in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Walsh gained his pilot licence, but failed the medical examination to fly fighter jets due to colour blindness.
Instead, Walsh took a sandwich degree in accounting and economics at Manchester Polytechnic in 1973, with a work placement at the Co-operative Group's soft drinks operation. He did not enjoy accounting, but reasoned that the skill would provide a good gateway into business. He moved to London to work for International Computers Limited, and later the American Eaton Corporation, a manufacturer of industrial equipment, which he says he learnt a "can-do attitude".
Career
Grand Metropolitan
Walsh joined London-based property and brewing conglomerate Grand Metropolitan (Grand Met) in 1982 as a financial planner and account manager for their brewing division Watney, Mann & Truman. By 1984–5, at his request, he had moved into a sales and marketing role. In 1986 he became the brewing division's chief financial officer (CFO), where he came to the attention of Grand Met's chairman Allen Sheppard after he reformed the financial reporting system.
In 1987, Walsh moved to New York to become CFO of Grand Met's 100 property-strong Intercontinental Hotels division. There he was tasked with acquiring properties, but having arrived at the height of what he identified as a real estate bubble, he argued that, "at that price we should be selling, not buying". Walsh also believed that the hotel group utilised an excessive amount of working capital. In 1988, he helped to negotiate the sale of the chain for $2.3 billion in cash (a price to earnings ratio of 52) to the Saison Group, in what he later described as "the deal of the decade". Even before the bubble burst, it was suggested that the Japanese company was overpaying for the chain; one analyst described their valuation of Intercontinental as "off the chart". Saison sold the chain in 1998 for $2.8 billion, having added a further 87 hotels.