FEBRUARY 5, 2007

The men behind Donington's new plans

Lee Gill and Simon Gillett are the new owners of Donington Park. They come from very diverse backgrounds with Gill having spent much of his career at Marks & Spencer PLC, where he held several executive positions, working mainly in the supply chain. He then moved on to join i2 Technologies Inc, a NASDAQ-quoted supply chain company for which he worked as head of retail in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia. He believes that attention to detail is the secret of success and sees much potential to improve customer focus in the leisure industry.

Simon Gillett was a regular visitor to racing in his childhood as his father was in charge of sponsorship for Elf in the UK. He started his professional career as weapons engineer with the Royal Navy but then moved into the software world, before creating his own retail consultancy business. He embarked on the plan to buy Donington in 2005.

The funding for the project is coming from the two men, from a property investment company and from the Anglo Irish Bank.