Alan White is the CEO of N Brown Group plc, a FT250 home shopping company with revenues in 2008/9 of £662m. He first joined the company as finance director in 1985, a position he held for 14 years and during this period turnover grew from £42.7m to £324.3m and pre-tax profit from £4.6m to £43.2m. In 1999 he joined the £2.5 billion turnover Littlewoods plc, as group finance director covering home shopping, the Index and Littlewoods stores, football pools and Shop!, the television shopping channel. He returned to N Brown Group as CEO in September 2002, since when the proportion of online sales has increased to almost 40% and profits have risen from £58m to £83m.

Alan is a director of European E-commerce and Mail Order Traders Association, Chairman-elect of the CBI Regional Council in the North West and also sits on the Business Leadership Council for the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities. Alan was voted as CBI North West Business Leader of the Year 2007.

Alan graduated with a law degree from Warwick University in 1976 and joined Arthur Andersen where he qualified as a chartered accountant, before joining Sharp Electronics in 1979 in a senior financial role. He also sits on the board of Topps Tiles plc as a non-executive director, a role he previously held with J D Sports plc from 1996 to 2001.

Alan White lives in Cheshire. His leisure activities include tennis, squash and skiing and he is a Manchester United fanatic.