On Tuesday 25 February, Eton College welcomed Richard Walker OBE, Executive Chair of Iceland Foods. His talk blended his tales of boardroom strategy, environmental activism, and his impressive ascent of Everest. Son of Iceland’s founder, Sir Malcolm Walker, he traced his journey from university graduate to his current roles as a property entrepreneur.
Wanting to make his own way to the top, he joined the company in 2012 not as a boardroom heir but as a shelf-stacker, learning the business “from the frozen aisles up.” This deliberate choice, he explained, was to prove he wasn’t just there because of his father’s legacy. “I wanted to earn my stripes,” Mr Walker said, recalling his nights of restocking peas and confronting shoplifters. His hard work later led to promotions to head office and, eventually, Executive Chair in 2023, alongside his independent ventures like Bywater Properties, a sustainable real estate company that recently partnered with a Japanese firm to cut construction emissions across Europe. “Property isn’t frozen peas,” he quipped, “but both demand innovation, and humility.”
Since then, Mr Walker has led many sustainability initiatives, including a pledge to halve food waste by 2027, introducing a ban on palm oil in own-brand products. The latter was championed in Iceland’s viral 2018 Christmas advert, which amassed 30 million social media views within the first few weeks. Despite these efforts, Mr Walker acknowledged the difficulty of balancing ethics and profitability: “If I ran Tesco, I’d probably already be fired,” he joked, noting that 30,000 employees rely on his decisions. He claimed his next target would be to reduce the environmental harm caused by salmon farming, though he stressed that as much as he would like to do more environmental work, Iceland remains “a business, not an NGO,” which therefore limits the extent of his initiatives.
Iceland’s success, Mr Walker argued, comes from its ability to focus on affordability and community. With stores being within walking distance of 90% of UK households, it offers the “practical help” that families may need amidst the cost-of-living crisis. The company also prioritises its employee well-being, having twice been voted the UK’s best workplace. It outperforms Goldman Sachs in staff pay and overall satisfaction while also recruiting ex-offenders and cutting reoffending rates by 50%.
The talk took a sharp turn as Mr Walker detailed his 2023 Everest summit, ten years after his first attempt with his father, Sir Malcolm Walker. He claimed the summit “was more than a personal milestone—it was redemption.” The 2011 expedition with his father had ended just shy of the summit. Although it raised £1m for Alzheimer’s Research UK, it left him “haunted” by unfinished business. Twelve years later, having battled 200mph winds and the mountain’s deadly icefalls, he reached the peak despite the setbacks of oxygen-starved headaches, the 12-hour journey through the Khumbu Icefall, and the perilous wait to summit of Camp IV. “Summiting Everest isn’t about ego,” he reflected. “It’s about trusting your team and putting one foot in front of the other.” This climb, which he dedicated to his mother, who suffered from dementia, raised another £1m, proving his belief that “resilience isn’t inherited, but earned.”
The talk concluded with Mr Walker leaving the students with a challenge: “Find a job you love. If you can’t, create one. Entrepreneurship beats working for others any day.” His closing remark concluded his experiences telling those present, “to prioritise passion and self-reliance.” The members of VocSoc, Social Impact & Shackleton societies thank Richard Walker OBE for his insightful talk.
