Nigel Keen
Director of Building and Services and Director of Development
Waitrose
Born 23 October 1961, Barrow in
He finished his career as a professional footballer at Preston North End, before moving south to work as a quantity surveyor at John Evers & Partners whilst maintaining a semi professional football career at
He continued his training as a quantity surveyor at John Evers & Partners and then the Selway Joyce Partnership before in 1989 moving to Tesco where he spent the next ten years.
He joined Tesco as a quantity surveyor, working in all areas of the property process from acquisition through to construction, latterly being responsible as the Construction Director for the delivery of Tesco’s development programme, with an annual spend of £400 million-plus delivering 20 new stores, 20 extensions and 20 major refits.
He was primarily responsible for the development of the supply chain procurement approach at Tesco, which was at the forefront of innovative procurement approaches, enabling Tesco to substantially reduce the cost of its development programme, improve the quality of its delivery process and significantly contribute to the growth of Tesco.
Whilst at Tesco, he was a member of the Construction Round Table and was involved in John Egan’s report on Rethinking Construction.
He joined the John Lewis Partnership at operational board level in 1999 as Deputy Director of Building, then Director of Building and Services responsible for the delivery of the John Lewis development programme for both Waitrose and department stores, encompassing all elements of the design and construction process, and once again is embarking on a new process of supply chain management based on best practice within the industry.
He now also has responsibility for the Property portfolio and its management, together with property acquisition teams giving him overall responsibility for formulating, with the divisions, the development strategy for both Department Stores and Waitrose and its subsequent design and delivery.
Married with two children, he lives in
