It was my absolute pleasure to sit down with Scott Fyfe and listen to his fascinating story which he tells so eloquently. The best advice the David Jones CEO received from his long-time mentor and former executive chairman of high street retailer Marks & Spencer, Sir Stuart Rose, was “keep your feet on the ground and keep running” At just 29 years old, Scott gained the rare opportunity to be Rose’s personal assistant for 18 months in the early years of his career at the UK chain. He then travelled the world with Rose and learnt the retailing trade first-hand back in 2008 when Rose steered Marks and Spencer to achieve a £1 billion profit. His 20 years at M&S working across various roles from buying, merchandising and international sourcing, as well as being part of the team to replatform M&S online business, he feels, provided him with a great understanding of omnichannel retailing. Scott moved to Melbourne back in 2017 to head up the Country Road Group with great success. He then moved to David Jones and continued to do great things and are now celebrating their 185th birthday this year with the gift of Australian ownership under Anchorage Capital Group, L.L.C. Scott grew up in the port city of Aberdeen, Scotland with his brother and his mother who worked in retail as an auditor at Fraser’s, and his father who was a commercial banker. From a young age competitive sport was central to his life where he played tennis, hockey and golf. At the age of 14 he saw an opportunity to make money out of stringing rackets for tennis players who had broken their strings whilst in a tournament. He borrowed £500 from his dad and did that well he managed to pay him back within a few months. The rest as they say is history!