Derek Rayner, Baron Rayner

Derek George Rayner, Baron Rayner (30 March 1926 – 26 June 1998) was an English businessman, who was chairman and chief executive of Marks & Spencer, and revived and rapidly expanded the company in the 1980s. He began working for M&S in 1953 as a management trainee and became the first chief executive outside the founding families of the company.

Personal life Rayner was born in 1926, the son of George and Hilda Rayner. He was educated at City College, Norwich and Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he read theology. From 1946 to 1948 he completed his National Service duty in the Royal Air Force.

Career Marks & Spencer Rayner began working for M&S as a management trainee in 1953 at the company's store in Oxford and on 3 February 1983 he was created a life peer as Baron Rayner, of Crowborough in the County of East Sussex.