Who We Are

Value Retail Global Advisory Board

The Value Retail Global Advisory Board provides advice and counsel to the Value Retail business as a whole.

Scott Malkin, Chairman
Scott Malkin is the founder and Chairman of Value Retail and the co-founder and Chairman of Value Retail China. Mr. Malkin is a Trustee of the University of Austin, Texas, the New York Public Library, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Partners In Health, and works with other non-profit organisations. He also serves as Chairman of S.D. Malkin Properties and as Governor of the New York Islanders hockey team.

James Lambert, OBE, Deputy Chairman
James Lambert was appointed a Director of Value Retail in 1995 and Deputy Chairman since January 2016 and has been involved with Value Retail since its inception. His charitable activities are focused on the intersection between culture and commerce and on education. He is a Trustee of the National Gallery and Chair of its enterprise company, National Gallery Global. He serves as a Trustee of the Royal Collection Trust, a Non-Executive Director at Castle Howard, and is a founding Trustee and former Chair of IntoUniversity. James received an award to study at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. His first career was as an art dealer at Colnaghi, where he was a Director and Head of the Old Master department. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List in recognition of his services to social mobility in education.

Mark Burton
Mark Burton is a consultant advising on global real estate investment, with over 60 years’ experience in the industry. He has served as a member of the UK Government Property Advisory Group and was formerly Chairman of both the Investment Property Forum and ULI UK.In 2001, Mr Burton was appointed Chief Investment Officer of the Real Estate Department at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, subsequently holding the same role at the Abu Dhabi Investment Council until his retirement in 2010. Since then, he has held a number of senior advisory and board positions, including Chairman of AEW UK, a listed REIT, and membership of the Real Estate Advisory Board of Norges Bank Investment Management, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund.

Blondel Cluff, CBE
Blondel Cluff is the Chair of The Big Lottery and CEO of the West India Committee. She sits on The Royal Mint Advisory Committee, responsible for the design of the UK’s coins. She spent 17 years in investment banking, founding the legal department of Lazard Brothers, London, and going on to establish her own law firm in the City that included amongst its clientele leading fashion designers. A Fellow of King’s College, London, where she served on the council for 9 years, she represented the British territory of Anguilla in the UK and EU, addressing Brexit for this border nation.

Leslie Chao
Leslie Chao has been associated with Value Retail since its inception. He is a co-founder of Value Retail China and serves as chairman of its subsidiary partnerships. Until 2008 he was the chief executive officer of Chelsea Property Group, the world’s largest outlet company (now part of Simon Property Group, NYSE: SPG). Mr Chao currently also serves as the lead independent director of Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: PECO), a US-based retail REIT.

Ruth Kennedy
Ruth Kennedy is a brand consultant advising clients in the luxury goods and services sectors to meet their business development objectives. From 2006 to 2009 she served as head of Quinlan Private UK, a real estate and private equity group managing commercial and residential properties in Europe including luxury hotels. Previously she was 16 years with David Linley and Co. She sits on the public board of Birkenstock Holding, is a member of the Board of Directors of Daylesford Organic and Bamford, and until 2019 was on the public board of Belmond Hotels.

Janie Ligon
Janie Ligon takes an active role with group-wide retail and marketing activities in the business. She has a background in marketing, finance, sales and product production for wholesale/retail clothing and consumer products businesses, and previously held positions at Levi Strauss & Co. and McKinsey & Company.

Debora Spar
Debora Spar is the Jaime and Josefina Chua Tiampo Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research. Her current research focuses on issues of gender and technology, and the interplay between technological change and broader social structures. Spar tackles some of these issues in her forthcoming book Sacred Goods: Reclaiming Love in the Time of Machines.