Andrew Regan

Andrew Regan (born 14 December 1965, in Manchester, England) is a British-born polar explorer and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer of Corvus Capital, an investment company.

Career

Hobson Early in his career, Regan ran a household products business, Cadismark, which was sold to Hobson plc in 1991. Following the sale, he became the chief executive of Hobson, which was listed on the London Stock Exchange. In 1994, Hobson acquired F.E. Barber, the food and drinks manufacturing operation of the Co-operative Wholesale Society.

Regan was responsible for developing the Loyd Grossman range of sauces which were manufactured by F.E. Barber. After rationalising the operation, Hobson was acquired in 1996 by Hillsdown Holdings for £154 million, through a recommended cash takeover. In 1995 Regan had authorised the transfer of £2.4 m from F.E. Barber which he maintained he provided to an intermediary as a brokerage fee for successfully resolving the deadlock between the CWS and Hobson in negotiations about extending a food supply contract; the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) maintained that the transfer was used by the intermediary to provide a bribe to two senior CWS executives in order to extend the contract. At the second retrial (also in 2003), Regan was acquitted with the judge noting that he was minded to order the SFO to pay Regan's defence costs.

ASOS plc Regan was the original financier behind the online fashion retailer ASOS plc, which is now the UK's largest independent online fashion retailer. He invested £2.3 million in seed capital at the company’s inception and was described as the “creative arm” of the business during its formative period. As Seen on Screen, as it was then known at listing, was reversed into Brindle Limited, a shell company created by a consortium of fellow Monaco investors that included Nigel Robertson. The AIM listing raised only £255,000 (£95,000 after expenses) and had a market capitalisation of £12m when listed on the AIM Market in 2001, growing to £4.36bn in 2017.

Corvus Capital Regan became the chief executive officer of Corvus Capital, an international investment company, in 2004 - a position he still assumes. Corvus was established to identify assets or companies which are either underperforming or undervalued. The management team attempt to acquire or tactically reposition such companies in order to realise potential value. Corvus Capital, Inc. was listed in the UK on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM)

Corvus founded Lodore Resources, an AIM-listed investment company formed in 2004 with the intention to build a group specialising in the oil and gas sector.

Academia In 2014, Regan was awarded a PhD from Oxford Brookes University's Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment. His thesis was "A system to predict the S&P 500 using a bio-inspired algorithm."

Polar travel

North Pole Regan visited the Geographic North Pole for the first time in 2004. In April 2008 he returned, completing an expedition on foot with three of his children to raise awareness about climate change. His latest visit was in 2014, taking the total number of times he has reached the pole to three.

Ice Challenger 05 In 2005, he led the Ice Challenger Expedition, a world record attempt for the fastest overland crossing to the South Pole. The six-man Ice Challenger team completed the 1,200 km route in 69 hours, breaking the previous world record of 24 days (576 hours). The expedition aimed to increase awareness of global warming. The entire team wanted to highlight the impact of climate change on the Antarctic, to the rest of the world.

Winston Wong, a prominent Taiwanese businessman and alumnus of Imperial College London, was the main sponsor to the expedition. The Winston Wong Bio-Inspired Ice Vehicle was the lead vehicle in the expedition and was the first ever bio-fuelled vehicle to reach the Geographic South Pole. The WWBIV is currently on display at the Magic School for Green Technology at the National Cheng Kung University in Tainen.

The expedition partnered with Imperial College London, to carry out scientific experiments in Antarctica.

Personal life Regan was born in Manchester and has eight children.