User:Mfjulien

Michael Frederick Julien was born on 22nd March 1938, and is now retired. In his career as a director of several public companies his experience spanned the following:

•	Ten years as a director of Guinness until retiring from the Board on the merger, in December 1997, of Guinness and GrandMet (Grand Metropolitan) whose combined business is now known as Diageo (owner of the Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Gordons Gin and Smirnoff brands and with a major stake in the Moët et Chandon and Hennessy brands) with five of those years as Chairman of the Guinness Audit Committee.

•	Four years as Chairman of First Choice Holidays PLC (a major tour operator and airline business) and four years as Group Chief Executive of the retail business of Storehouse plc (owners of British Home Stores, Habitat, Mothercare, Richard Shops and several other brands). He also led the channel tunnel project for a short spell as Deputy Chief Executive of Eurotunnel and spent five years as a non-executive director of pharmaceutical company, Medeva PLC, where he chaired the Audit Committee.

•	Three years spent in banking as a Director of Midland Bank, one of the largest UK banks now owned by HSBC, where he was the first non banker to fill the position of Executive Director (Finance and Planning). During that time he spent considerable time in the USA sorting out the problems which Midland Bank had encountered when they bought Crocker National Bank in California and he also introduced modern systems of financial control and internal audit into the bank.

•	Earlier he had spent six years as Group Finance Director of the international cables and construction group BICC (British Insulated Callender's Cables) and eight years as Group Finance Director of two of the leading insurance broking and underwriting companies at Lloyd's of London - C E Heath and Willis Faber (now Willis Group Holdings) - and a period as Group Treasurer of British Leyland. He was also a non-executive director of the Littlewoods Organisation which was then the largest private company in the UK.

Michael Julien began his career in 1959 at Price Waterhouse where he qualified as a chartered accountant, spending seven years with the firm and becoming a manager in the London office. He is also a Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers. He was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford and during national service was commissioned in the Royal Corps of Signals and subsequently served five years in the territorial army where he commanded the parachute squadron of the 39th Signals Regiment (Special Communications). He is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Barbers.

Michael Julien is the great-grandson of Edward Richard Woodham who was one of the survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade and later became Chairman of the Committee for the Celebration of the 21st Anniversary of the Charge which was held in Alexandra Palace on the 25 October 1875. The dinner was reported in detail by the Illustrated London News in their edition dated 30 October 1875.