Nick Read

Nicholas James Read (born March 1966) is a British business executive who was CEO of Post Office Limited from 2019 to 2025. Previously he held senior positions in several customer-facing businesses, and was CEO of Nisa from 2015 to 2017.

Early life Read was born in March 1966 in Hanover, Germany, the son of a soldier. He was educated at Ampleforth College, then an all-boys independent Catholic school, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

In August 1986, Read was commissioned in the British Army as a second lieutenant in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards. He was promoted to lieutenant on 9 August 1988. He left the regular army in August 1989 and was transferred to the Territorial Army, where he gained the rank of captain in October 1993. In 1991–1992 he completed a bachelor's degree in Business Studies at the University of Buckingham.

Business career After leaving the Army in 1993, Read worked for Aldi UK and Deloitte Consulting, and held senior positions at Tesco, Vodafone, HBOS, Lloyds Banking Group, Vodafone, and then Thomas Cook, He received an MBA from Cranfield in 1998.

In February 2015, he was appointed as CEO of the shopkeeper-owned Nisa convenience store group, From April 2018 he was CEO of ExtraEnergie GmbH, ceased trading in November of that year, around the same time as a number of other small energy suppliers collapsed.

In September 2019, Read took up the role of CEO at Post Office Limited after Paula Vennells stepped down. Alan Bates, one of the lead claimants, praised Read for his efforts "to reset the relationship between the Post Office and its sub-postmasters". In January 2024, he gave evidence to Parliament's Business and Trade Committee, which led to a dispute over details of his oral replies.

In July 2024, Read decided to step back from his CEO role in order to prepare for the next phase of the public inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal, which would examine current practices at the Post Office. In September 2024 he resigned from his CEO role, to take effect in March 2025.

Personal life He is married to Clare and they have three sons. In 2020 he lived near Andover, Hampshire.