Meet the Board

Sir John Timpson

John started as a shoe shop assistant in the Altrincham branch in 1960 and 63 years later is still very actively involved, visiting over 800 shops a year as the Company Chairman.

John, prompted by his late wife, Alex, led a management buyout in 1983 and, after selling the shoe shop division in 1987, created a separate Timpson Shoe Repair company which became the basis of today's multi-service chain. Before handing over the day to day management to James, John developed his Upside Down Management way of doing business and wrote a library of both technical and management guide books that set out the principles the company continues to follow.

James Timpson OBE

James, John and Alex Timpson's eldest son, served his first Timpson customer aged 14 years when he was working in the Northwich branch. He spent part of each holiday working in the business while finishing school and going to Durham University where he got his degree in Geography ("Helps me find my way round our shops!"). He worked for Apparalmaster, part of Johnsons the Cleaners, before taking up a marketing role at Timpson in 1995. James became Managing Director in 2002 and is now the Company's Chief Executive. During his 15 years in charge of the day-to-day running of the business, the company has grown from 320 shops to over 2,000 and profits have risen from £3m to over £20m.

James was awarded the OBE in 2011 for the work he has done to provide jobs for ex-offenders. He is currently Chair of the Prison Reform Trust and sits on the Board at the Tate.

Stephen Robertson

Stephen has been a Timpson non-executive director since 2010. He has spent most of his working life in retailing, including key roles at B&Q and Screwfix, before becoming Director General of the British Retail Consortium, a role in which he represented the views of UK's biggest retailers to government. Stephen keeps his Timpson knowledge up to date by fitting several shop visits every month into his busy schedule as a board member of several other companies.

Paresh Majithia

Paresh has been Finance Director for Timpson for over 10 years. He previously worked as Group and UK Finance Director for UCI Cinemas and prior to that with Asda and Woolworths having qualified as a chartered accountant with PWC. As Finance Director and Main Board Member, Paresh has worked closely with owner and Chairman, John Timpson and CEO James Timpson to help the business grow into the UK’s leading retail service provider with over 2,000 stores and turnover exceeding £200m. Paresh is married to Lisa and they have 2 boys, Marco and Milan. He enjoys family life, going to gigs, watching and playing football and eating out.

Close followers of the Timpson business say that Paresh and James Timpson make an powerful executive partnership who complete common sense deals at lightening speed. Paresh has such a pivotal role in the business John Timpson has called Paresh, “an honorary member of the Timpson family".

Sarah Dunning OBE

Sarah is the second generation leader of her family business, best known for its motorway service areas, Tebay Services on the M6 in Cumbria and Gloucester services on the M5. Tebay is run with kindness at heart, and also, like Timpson, treats every colleague as part of the family.