Willard Gordon Galen Weston OC OOnt (born October 29, 1940) is a British-Canadian businessman and philanthropist as well as Executive Chairman of George Weston Limited, a leading food processing and distribution company. W. Galen Weston and family, with an estimated net worth of $US 8.9 billion, are listed as the second wealthiest in Canada and 147th in the world by Forbes magazine (March 2014).
In addition to being one of the country’s leading bakers through wholly owned subsidiary Weston Foods, Galen Weston is also an experienced supermarket retailer who maintains controlling interest in Loblaw Companies, Canada’s largest food retailer, through a family holding company. Weston is also head of the world’s second largest luxury goods retailer as Chairman of Holt Renfrew in Canada and the Selfridges Group, owner of Selfridges in the United Kingdom, Brown Thomas of Ireland, the De Bijenkorf department store chain in the Netherlands, and the recently acquired Ogilvy department store in Montreal. W. Galen Weston is Chairman of The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, a family-based private charitable trust which has made close to $200 million in donations over the past decade.
Early years
W. Galen Weston was born to Reta and W. Garfield Weston at Marlow, Buckinghamshire, near London, in October 1940 – the youngest of nine children. Garfield, a Canadian businessman whose father George Weston established George Weston Limited, had successfully expanded overseas during the 1930s by acquiring and modernising biscuit and bread factories throughout the United Kingdom. In 1945, Weston and family returned to Canada but moved frequently as Garfield pursued various business ventures, which included supermarket chains in North America and Europe. Growing up, Galen Weston worked in the stores that comprised his father’s retail holdings. He once noted, “I’ve been a bag boy a thousand times in five languages.
Weston is chairman emeritus of George Weston, the biggest shareholder of Loblaw Companies, Canada’s largest food retailer. The Toronto-based business reported revenue of C$46.7 billion ($36 billion) in 2017. He also owns stakes in U.K. department stores Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason, and Holt Renfrew in Canada.
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