Ian McLeod (businessman)


Ian McLeod is a Scottish businessman and sports administrator, who is currently Chief Executive Officer of Dairy Farm International Holdings. McLeod was a board member of the Fulham, Melbourne Victory and St Kilda football clubs, and was CEO of The Celtic Football Club in his native Scotland. McLeod is most known for being a successful Chief Executive Officer of public retailer company, Coles Group.
McLeod attended the six-week Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1999. He submitted his resignation was announced from Southeastern Grocers in June 2017, and began his new role as CEO of Dairy Farm International Holdings in July 2017.
In May 2014, McLeod publicly supported the idea of Gillon McLachlan becoming Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Football League.

Controversy

Ian’s tenures at several major retail chains have been criticised for overseeing declines in profit, managing companies with unfair market duopolies, and inadequate management of communications crises.
Whilst Ian was Chief executive Officer the Coles Group, Ian and Coles faced a "public relations disaster” after a leaked internal document revealed the retailer was attempting to utilize a range of corporate PR techniques to “neutralize” farmer protests against their milk pricing.
During Ian’s tenure as CEO of Southeastern Grocers between 2015 and 2017, the chain closed a number of stores due to financial difficulties and ultimately filed for bankruptcy just months after McLeod resigned to take a position at Dairy Farm Group.
His current tenure as CEO of Dairy Farm Group has seen the company post losses and a decline in sales in recent years.