David John Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville, (24 October 1940) is a British politician, businessman and philanthropist. From 1992 to 1997, he served as chairman of Sainsbury's, the supermarket chain established by his great grandfather John James Sainsbury in 1869.
He was made a life peer in 1997 as a member of the Labour Party, and was on a leave of absence from the House of Lords from 15 July 2013 to his retirement in 2021. He served in the government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science and Innovation from 1998 and 2006.
He is a major donor to the University of Cambridge and, in 2011, was elected Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He also made the largest donation in British political history, giving £8 million to the Liberal Democrats.
Early life and business career
The son of Sir Robert Sainsbury (1906–2000) and Lisa Ingeborg ( van den Bergh; 1912–2014), Sainsbury attended Eton College before going on to earn a degree in History and Psychology at King's College, Cambridge. He then completed an MBA at Columbia Business School in the United States.
Sainsbury joined the family firm, then known as J. Sainsbury Ltd., in 1963, working in the personnel department. He became a director in 1966. He was Financial Controller from 1971 to 1973, just before the company's flotation.
When the company listed on the London Stock Exchange on 12 July 1973, at the time the largest flotation ever, his family retained control with an 85% stake. His father, Sir Robert Sainsbury, gave almost his entire stake in the company to David Sainsbury, his only son, whereas his uncle Alan Sainsbury split his stake in the business between his sons John Davan Sainsbury, Simon Sainsbury, and Tim Sainsbury. John Davan Sainsbury became chairman in 1969 on Sir Robert Sainsbury's retirement.
He was the group's Finance Director from 1973 to 1990, during which time the company grew rapidly. He was chairman of Savacentre from 1984 to 1993, during which time the hypermarkets business grew slowly. He was deputy chairman from 1988 to 1992. On JD Sainsbury's retirement as chairman and chief executive on 2 November 1992, David Sainsbury became chairman.
In 1996, Sainsbury's announced its first drop in profits in 22 years, and the first of three profits warnings during his chairmanship was issued. Although there were senior management changes, which included David relinquishing the chief executive's role to Dino Adriano and becoming non-executive chairman, there were no new directors or outsiders appointed to the senior management team. Profits fell the next year, but rose in 1998. At this point, David Sainsbury, who had wanted to step down at the end of 1997, made a surprise announcement of his retirement as chairman to pursue his long-held ambition to have a career in politics, after "32 enjoyable and fulfilling years" working for Sainsbury's. Sainsbury's share price increased on the day of this announcement.
On his retirement as chairman, to avoid any conflict of interest, David Sainsbury placed his then 23% stake in Sainsbury's into a "blind" trust, to be administered by lawyer Judith Portrait. When David Sainsbury announced his intention to give away £1 billion to charity in 2005, his 23% stake was sold down, eventually to 12.9% by early 2007. His beneficial holding became just 7.75% when he regained control of his shares in February 2007 following his decision to step down as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science and Innovation in November 2006. During the private equity takeover bid in the first half of 2007, David indicated he was willing to let the Sainsbury's board open its books for due diligence if someone offered him a price of 600 pence per share or more.
David Sainsbury retains a sizeable shareholding in his family's supermarket chain (around 5.85%). To further his philanthropy interests, he placed 92million of his shares (representing 5.28% of the Company's share capital), into his investment vehicle, Innotech Advisers Ltd (which donates all its dividends to charity), meaning his beneficial stake is just 0.57% (lower than JD's 1.6% beneficial interest). The Sainsbury family as a whole control approximately 15% of Sainsbury's. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2008 his family fortune was estimated at £1.3 billion.
