Andrew Griffith

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Not to be confused with Andy Griffith.
Not to be confused with Andrew Griffiths.

Andrew Griffith

MP
Official portrait of Andrew Griffith MP crop 2.jpg
Official portrait, 2020
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
Assumed office
17 September 2021
Serving with Sarah Dines
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byAlex Burghart
Trudy Harrison
Member of Parliament
for Arundel and South Downs
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byNick Herbert
Majority22,521 (36.7%)
Prime Minister's Chief Business Adviser
In office
23 July 2019 – 12 December 2019
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byAlex Hickman
Personal details
Born (1971-02-23) 23 February 1971 (age 50)
Bexleyheath, England
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)Barbara Griffith
Children2
Alma materUniversity of Nottingham
Websiteandrewgriffithmp.com

Andrew Griffith (born 23 February 1971)[1] is a British Conservative Party politician and former senior businessman who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Arundel and South Downs since 2019.[2]

Early life and education[]

Griffith was born in Bexleyheath, London, England. He grew up in Bromley[3] and attended St Marys & St Josephs, a state comprehensive school, in Sidcup, Kent. From 1989 to 1992 he studied law at Nottingham University. He qualified as an (ICAEW) Chartered Accountant in 1996.[citation needed]

Business career[]

Griffith first worked for Rothschild & Co and PwC, before joining Sky in 1999 as a financial analyst.[4] By 2008, he rose to become Sky's chief financial officer, joining the board of directors, and at the time of his appointment was the youngest financial director in the FTSE 100.[5]

In March 2016,[6] Griffith took on an enlarged commercial and operational role as group chief operating officer, helping to grow the business to over 25 million customers, 39,000 employees and operating across seven different countries.[7]

He is a member of the Royal Television Society and was co-chairman of its 2017 Cambridge convention.[8]

In April 2014, Griffith joined the board of Just Eat as a senior non-executive director, a post which he held in combination with his full-time role at Sky. Just Eat then floated at £1.5 billion, the biggest technology IPO on the London Stock Market for eight years.[9] The company's market value rose above £5 billion by 2017, entering the FTSE 100.[10] However, in 2017, Just Eat was hit by the double challenge of losing its non-executive chairman to poor health and its chief executive officer stepping down all within three months, and then the Competition and Markets Authority reviewing Just Eat's acquisition of competitor Hungryhouse.[11][12] For his role in steadying the company through this period of turbulence and acting as interim chairman of the board, Griffith was named The Sunday Times' Non-Executive Director of the Year in 2018.[13]

Political career[]

Griffith stood as the Conservative parliamentary candidate for the constituency of Corby in 2001[14] and 2005, reducing the Labour Party's majority by 9%, from 11,860 to 1,517 over the two elections.[15]

In 2016, Griffith and Baroness Dido Harding led the 'Fix Britain's Internet' campaign for faster, more reliable broadband.[16]

Griffith was chairman of the advisory board at the Centre for Policy Studies, a think tank and pressure group who promoted policies based on "free markets, small state, low tax, national independence, self-determination and responsibility".[17]

Griffith was an early supporter of Boris Johnson and Johnson used his £9.5 million townhouse as his leadership election campaign headquarters.[18][19] In 2019, Griffith stepped down from his roles at Sky and Just Eat to become Johnson's chief business adviser, based in 10 Downing Street.[20][21] He took on the role in July.[22]

He was elected as the MP for Arundel and South Downs at the 2019 general election by a majority of 22,521 votes,[2] following the retirement of previous Conservative Nick Herbert.[23] He stood down from his role as the Prime Minister's chief business adviser upon election.[24][25]

On 17 November 2020, Griffith was appointed by Boris Johnson to be the UK's 'Net Zero Business Champion', a role designed to support UK businesses of all sizes to make credible plans to be net zero by 2050 or earlier, and to showcase the UK's place as a global leader in tackling climate change in the run up to the UN Climate Summit in Glasgow in November 2021. On 10 November 2020, he was appointed as a member of the Public Service Broadcasting Advisory Panel, to provide independent expertise and advice as part of the government's strategic review of public service broadcasting.

On 17 September 2021, Griffith was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, alongside Sarah Dines, during the second cabinet reshuffle of the second Johnson ministry.[26]

Griffith is the founder of and co-chairs with The Lord Rees of Ludlow, Astronomer Royal, the All Party Parliamentary Group for Dark Skies.[27]

Personal life[]

Griffith married Barbara, a volunteer charity worker, in 1997 and they have a son and daughter. As a businessman, he resided in Putney, in the London Borough of Wandsworth.[3]

His father, an IT salesman named John,[3] died of COVID-19.[28]

References[]

  1. ^ Brunskill, Ian (19 March 2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019 : the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b "Arundel & South Downs parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Standing start for Sky's Andrew Griffith". Royal Television Society. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  4. ^ "About Andrew - Andrew Griffith MP". andrewgriffithmp.com. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  5. ^ Crump, Richard (1 March 2011). "The FD Interview: Andrew Griffith, BSkyB". financialdirector.co.uk. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  6. ^ Barraclough, Leo (21 March 2016). "Sky Finance Chief Andrew Griffith Adds Role of Chief Operating Officer". Variety. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  7. ^ "Sky: About". LinkedIn.
  8. ^ "Andrew Griffith was appointed Group Chief Operating Officer in March 2016". Royal Television Society. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  9. ^ Kollewe, Julia (3 April 2014). "Just Eat shares rise on stock market debut". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  10. ^ Neate, Rupert (29 November 2017). "Just Eat £5.5bn valuation: online takeaway company now worth more than M&S". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  11. ^ Lynch, Russell (12 October 2017). "Just Eat gets go-ahead to swallow Hungryhouse". Evening Standard. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  12. ^ Merdle, Richard (25 March 2018). "NED Award for FTSE all-share: Andrew Griffith juggled jobs to deliver in a crisis". The Times. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  13. ^ "Winners". nedawards.co.uk.
  14. ^ "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  15. ^ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  16. ^ Aldrick, Philip (24 July 2019). "Sky chief Andrew Griffith is lured to fix Boris Johnson's bridges with business". The Times. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  17. ^ Andrew Denham and Mark Garnett Keith Joseph (Chesham 2001), p. 240.
  18. ^ Mason, Rowena; Syal, Rajeev (19 July 2019). "Boris Johnson uses Sky executive's townhouse as campaign HQ". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  19. ^ "Boris Johnson appoints Sky senior executive as business adviser after being lent his £9.5m Westminster flat". The Independent. 23 July 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  20. ^ Syal, Rajeev; Mason, Rowena; O'Carroll, Lisa (23 July 2019). "Sky executive among Johnson's first appointments". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  21. ^ "Just Eat director steps down after PM appointment". Insider Media. 26 July 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  22. ^ "Boris Johnson hires Sky's Andrew Griffith as business adviser". Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  23. ^ "A message to the voters of Arundel & South Downs". nickherbert.com. 9 December 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  24. ^ "Andrew Griffith MP (@griffitha)". Twitter. Archived from the original on 23 May 2020. Retrieved 11 June 2020. Previously No10 Business adviser.
  25. ^ Griffith, Andrew (18 May 2020). "Andrew Griffith: A blanket and indefinite 14-day quarantine would put our aviation sector at risk". Conservative Home. Retrieved 11 June 2020. Andrew Griffith is MP for Arundel & South Downs and is the former Chief Business Adviser to Boris Johnson.
  26. ^ "Ministerial appointments: September 2021". 16 September 2021.
  27. ^ "APPG for Dark Skies". APPG for Dark Skies. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  28. ^ Yorke, Harry (7 June 2020). "Conservative MP whose father died of coronavirus calls for lockdown to be lifted by July 4". The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 June 2020.

External links[]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Nick Herbert 		Member of Parliament
for Arundel and South Downs
2019–present 		Incumbent
Retrieved from ""