Alison Cooper was born on March 31, 1966. Her growing years were spent in Kingston-Upon-Thames, Surrey. Alison attended the nearby all-girls’ grammar school, Tiffin Girls’ School. She went on to earn a degree in mathematics and statistics from Bristol University. Alison spent a gap year teaching on voluntary basis in Kenya after she earned her degree.
She initially wanted to become a teacher but then decided to enter the corporate world working as an auditor for accountancy firm Deloitte, Haskins & Sells in Bristol. The company was involved in a merger and later became PriceWaterhouseCoopers. While employed there, Alison worked closely with the Imperial Tobacco Group on acquisitions.
In 1999 she joined Imperial Tobacco Group as Group Finance Manager. Two years later she rose up the ladder and became Group Financial Controller and was responsible for the financial management and control of the Group, including the financial evaluation of acquisitions, corporate planning and development, and investor relations.
Alison was involved with Imperial Tobacco’s purchase of the German tobacco group Reemsta, in 2002. She was also involved in the acquisition in 2007, of Franco-Spanish maker of Gitanes and Gauloises cigarettes.
Alison was named Regional Director of Western Europe in 2005 and in 2007 Corporate Development Director. She was named Chief Operating Officer in 2009. Alison became the Chief Executive Officer in March 2010 upon the departure of Gareth Davis who held to post for the past 14 years.
After assuming her new position Alison embarked on changing the company mindset from being a tobacco manufacturer to be a FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) company.
On the issue of having more women in the board room as well a running companies she is of the view that she does not support the introduction of quotas intended to increase female participation. She actually finds it rude to women and believes it should be based on merit.
