Sainsbury’s CEO amongst enterprise leaders recognised in new yr honours | Enterprise

[ad_1] The boss of Sainsbury’s who helped flip across the grocer’s fortunes is amongst main figures from the enterprise world to be recognised within the new yr honours listing.

Simon Roberts, who has been chief govt of the UK’s second largest grocery store since 2020, has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for providers to the retail business.

His tenure has included main Sainsbury’s by way of the Covid pandemic in addition to the price of residing disaster whereas enhancing its market share, serving to its inventory value rise by about three-quarters.

Roberts courted controversy throughout 2025 as he was accused of “Orwellian” ways for trialling facial recognition expertise to fight shoplifting and launched into a programme to axe 3,000 jobs as a part of a £1bn cost-cutting drive whereas being paid greater than £5m within the grocery store’s monetary yr to 1 March.

The businessman was a member of the then prime minister Rishi Sunak’s 2023 enterprise council and took over as president of the Institute of Grocery Distribution in 2024.

Elsewhere within the enterprise sector, the previous Nationwide Grid chief govt John Pettigrew has been made a CBE for providers to vitality.

He ran Nationwide Grid, which runs a lot of Britain’s electrical energy grid, for nearly 10 years till leaving the function in November. He had joined the enterprise as a graduate in 1991.

Within the defence business, the previous chief govt of BAE Methods Ian King turns into a CBE for providers to the transport and defence sectors.

He led the FTSE 100 agency, which is Europe’s greatest defence contractor, for almost a decade till his retirement in 2017 after a profession spanning greater than 40 years within the sector.

Gary Hoffman, the chair of the net financial institution Monzo who was beforehand the chief govt of Northern Rock, has additionally been made a CBE.

Hoffman, who was parachuted into Northern Rock in 2008 after it nearly collapsed through the monetary disaster, has been recognised for providers to the economic system and sport.

He was chair of the Premier League from 2020 to 2022 however confronted criticism over his dealing with of Newcastle United’s takeover by a gaggle led by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. He was additionally partly blamed for enjoying a job within the European Tremendous League scandal.

This month there have been stories that quite a lot of buyers had been calling for Hoffman to be ousted from his function at Monzo.

Matt Brittin, who led Google in Europe, the Center East and Africa till the beginning of 2025 and is now a non-executive director of Guardian Media Group, has been awarded a CBE for providers to expertise and to enhancing digital expertise.

Pamela Maynard, Microsoft’s chief AI transformation officer, has been awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE), as have Unilever’s analysis and improvement head, Jonathan Hague, and Peter Higgins, an entrepreneur who co-founded the menswear enterprise Charles Tyrwhitt.