{"id":462489,"date":"2026-05-01T00:01:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T23:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drapersonline.com\/?p=462489"},"modified":"2026-04-30T12:34:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T11:34:40","slug":"mary-portas-to-open-brc-leadership-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drapersonline.com\/news\/mary-portas-to-open-brc-leadership-programme","title":{"rendered":"Mary Portas to open BRC leadership programme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Portas will discuss the growing divide between retailers competing on price and operational efficiency alone, and retailers forming longstanding cultural relevance through a sense of community.<\/p>\n<p>For the last four decades Portas, who is also a retail expert and broadcaster has been influencing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drapersonline.com\/news\/mary-portas-and-former-john-lewis-coo-top-new-year-honours-list\">UK shopping<\/a>. Her work has included reshaping Harvey Nichols where she worked as its creative director (1989-1997).<\/p>\n<p>The programme will set the stage for the BRC Learning\u2019s flagship development programme which will help mid-level retail leaders to handle the changing trading environment, influenced by evolving consumer needs and shifting shopping activity.<\/p>\n<p>Portas said: \u201cThe retailers planting roots right now in their communities are the ones who\u2019ll still be standing in ten years. The ones still asking how cheap, how fast, how much can we squeeze out, are running a different race entirely. Summer School is exactly where that honest conversation needs to happen, and I\u2019m looking forward part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC said: \u201cMary has built her career anticipating the structural shifts before the wider industry catches up, which is why I am so pleased she will open our 2026 Summer School leadership programme. She sets the exact tone we need for leaders of the future: thoughtful, challenging, and rooted in a clear vision of what great retailing looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Portas was awarded an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drapersonline.com\/news\/mary-portas-and-former-john-lewis-coo-top-new-year-honours-list\">OBE<\/a> in 2023 for her contribution to charity, broadcasting and business. She has written for Drapers previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drapersonline.com\/insight\/comment\/mary-portas-on-ageism-drapers-findings-dont-surprise-me\">on the subject of ageism<\/a> in fashion retail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Portas will discuss the growing divide between retailers competing on price and operational efficiency alone, and retailers forming longstanding cultural relevance through a sense of community. For the last four decades Portas, who is also a retail expert and broadcaster has been influencing UK shopping. Her work has included reshaping Harvey Nichols where she worked &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131841,"featured_media":361237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[962],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-462489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.7 (Yoast SEO v26.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mary Portas to open BRC leadership programme<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mary Portas, the founder of Portas, will open the BRC summer school on 1 June, which is a leadership programme for mid-level retail leaders.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.drapersonline.com\/news\/mary-portas-to-open-brc-leadership-programme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mary Portas to open BRC leadership programme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mary Portas, the founder of Portas, will open the BRC summer school on 1 June, which is a leadership programme for mid-level retail leaders.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.drapersonline.com\/news\/mary-portas-to-open-brc-leadership-programme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Drapers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-30T23:01:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/25115715\/2021_01_05_MaryPortas_223-Copy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" 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