James Daunt

James Daunt

Managing Director, Waterstones

As the founder of the chain of local, individual Daunt shops, James Daunt’s accession to the role of managing director at Waterstones in 2011 may have been rather uncharacteristic. Appointed by the multinational’s Russian billionaire owner Alexander Mamut, Daunt was faced with the task of reinvigorating and delivering some serious profit from the fading High Street giant. Born the son of a British diplomat and ambassador to Turkey, he read History at Cambridge before getting his first job as a purser with a cruise line. After working as an investment banker in the US, Daunt founded his eponymous chain in 1990 on London’s Marylebone High Street, later opening another five shops around the capital. A staunch proponent of the value of the local and personal bookshop, his distaste for the likes of Amazon is well-known: he refers to the digital conglomerate as a ‘ruthless, money-making devil’.