Alannah Weston
Alannah Elizabeth Weston is an Irish-Canadian businesswoman who is the former chairman of the Selfridges Group. She is a member of the Weston family and serves as a director of the family's holding company, Wittington Investments.
Background
Weston was born in Dublin, Ireland, on January 8, 1972. She is the elder child of Galen Weston and his wife, Hilary. She has one sibling, younger brother Galen Weston Jr. She is a citizen of both Ireland and Canada.She is married to Alex Cochrane, with whom she has two children. Weston lives with her family in London.
Career
Weston attended Havergal College in Toronto and studied English literature at Merton College, Oxford. After graduation, she worked as a journalist at The Daily Telegraph, Tatler, and British Vogue. She left journalism in 1999 to work for Rose Marie Bravo at luxury fashion brand Burberry, where she was head of press. In 2001, Weston left Burberry to establish her own design agency, Zephyr Projects.In 2004, Weston became creative director of Selfridges department store in London. She was appointed deputy chair of the Selfridges Group in 2014 and joined the board of directors of George Weston Limited in 2016. She became the chair of the Selfridges Group in 2019. As a member of the Weston family, she was ranked tenth on the Sunday Times [Rich List 2021|2021 Sunday Times Rich List]. Weston's family is estimated to have personal wealth of approximately €11 billion.
In August 2022, Weston stepped down as chairman of Selfridges Group upon the sale of the business to Thai conglomerate Central Group and Austria's Signa Holding.