Jennifer d'Abo (1945-2003)
Michael Rhodes
Chairman of Moyses Stevens Investments, died at her home in France, 30
April, 2003. She was 57.
Mrs d'Abo made a fortune in the 1980s by turning around the Rymans
stationery chain and selling it for £20m to Pentos, the bookshops
group.
Some regarded her as a female Bertie Wooster who wore heart-shaped
spectacles and called everybody "Dahling". Others, said the Financial
Times a deceade ago, regarded this as a disguise for an extremely
astute businesswoman who was quick to spot money-making opportunities
but tended to flit around, the one who sparked larger than life
stories.
The directors of the Ryman chain of shops selling office supplies were
taken aback when their chairman locked them in the Bond Street branch
in London, gave them cloths and mops, and asked them to clean the
place. "But Jennifer, I've never cleaned a place in my life", gasped
the Managing Director. "You are going to start now, angel", replied
Jennifer d'Abo. "I like clean shops" she explained.
She had been complaining to the board for months to increase the cash
allotment for cleaning. "This was my way of showing them what was
involved, " she said.
From this incident it will be gathered that Mrs d'Abo had what the
Financial Times called "rather an unconventional business manner".
For a start she was a woman, which seemed to disconcert the City. At
one stage in her career she was told she could certainly take the
training course for membership of the Stock Exchange but that, being
female, she would not be allowed to take the examinations. So she
learned to fly a plane instead.
She was born Jennifer Mary Victoria Hammond-Maude, 14 August, 1945,
daughter of Michael Hammond-Maude and the former Rosamond Patrick, &
was educated at Hathertop Castle, Gloucestershire.
Career: Chairman of Ryman Ltd, 1981-87; Roffey Brothers Ltd, 1988;
Director: Burlingtons Furnishing Co., 1977-80; Jean Sorelle, toiletry
manufacturing co., 1980-83; Stormgard plc, 1985-87; London Docklands
Development Corporation, 1985-88; Channel Four Television, 1986-87;
she was a non-executive director Pentos plc, 1987-88; Member of the
Industrial Development Board for Northern Ireland, 1992-94 (she
resigned in Nov. 1994 and accused officials of withholding vital
information about the Hualon project); she was a member of the
Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration Review Body, 1989-92; Imperial
Cancer Research Fund, subsequently Cancer Research UK, Member of the
Council from 1994; Trustee, British Museum (Natural History) 1988-99,
&c.
She had a home for some years on the Duke of Marlborough's Blenheim
estate in Oxfordshire.
She was married thrice - firstly to David Morgan-Jones, of the Life
Guards, with whom she had one daughter, Sophy (another of
Morgan-Jones's wives was Sandra Paul, now wife of the former Tory Home
Secretary Michael Howard); she married secondly, in April, 1970, Peter
Egbert Cadbury, of the chocolate family, and godfather to her
daughter. This marriage ended in divorce in 1975. From her marriage to
Cadbury she had a son, Joel (b. 1971). Her third husband was
stockbroker Robin d'Abo, head of a landed family. They divorced in
1987.
She said she was on the best of terms with all three of her ex
husbands.
Jennifer found in the early days that no one would take take someone
called Mrs Peter Cadbury seriously when she applied for a job.
"My accountant asked me what I spent the most money on, and when I
told him it was probably the grocery bill, he said that my most
economic solution in that case would be to buy a grocer's shop of my
own." She picked one, after looking at 32, and worked there from seven
every morning until seven at night. "Then my new husband said that it
was time I stopped smelling like a side of bacon."
Backed by Barclays Bank she next went up the scale and bought a
supermarket in Basingstoke for £500,000 in 1976. With the help of an
executive lured away from Waitrose, she made such a success of it that
she was able to sell it two years later for £1.3m. Later ventures
included the toiletry factory in Peterborough, bought from a group
forced into receivership. When she first looked at it she said it
"resembled a bomb site just after the blast, with moreale at rock
bottom. " She soon built up a full order book.
It took her a year of wheeling and dealing to buy the Ryman chain from
the Burton Group. This purchase involved raising £3m from merchant
banks in the City. "They kept me waiting for my CV," she famously
intoned. "I didn't know what they were talking about, and I wasn't
much wiser when my husband Robin explained that what they wanted was
my curriculum vitae. What a joke!" So she took off to a jeweller and
had a little CV made out of silver which she kept in a small
plush-lined box. When someone asked for it she would take out the box
and place her bit of silver on their desk.
Jennifer d'Abo's memorial service takes place at St Paul's Church,
Wilton Place, London SW1, 13 June, 2003.
--
Michael Rhodes
Mike Richard
sister of Fred Savage on the TV show "The Wonder Years." :-)
SlobbyDon
"Mike Richard"
> All those accomplishments, as well as being a real hottie as the teenage
> sister of Fred Savage on the TV show "The Wonder Years." :-)
>
Close!---At least Olivia and Jennifer are both Brits who made good beyond their home. Olivia D'Abo was born in 1967.
D'Abo looks like an Italian/Austrailian name to me.
Let me D'Abos go loose, Lou
Let me D'Abos go loose
They're of no further use, Lou
So, Let me D'Abos go loose