From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

James Daunt

British business executive

Summary

British business executive

Field	Value
name	James Daunt
honorific_suffix
birth_name	Achilles James Daunt
birth_date
death_date
nationality	British
known_for	Founder, Daunt Books
education	Sherborne School
alma_mater	Pembroke College, Cambridge University
occupation	Managing Director, Waterstones
spouse	Katy Steward
children	2 daughters
parents	Sir Timothy Daunt
Patricia Susan Knight
relations	Achilles Daunt (great-great grandfather)

Patricia Susan Knight

Achilles James Daunt (born 18 October 1963) is a British businessman. He is the founder of the Daunt Books chain, and since May 2011 has been managing director of the bookshop chain Waterstones. Since August 2019, Daunt has also been CEO of Barnes & Noble, the American bookstore chain. He is known as "the man who saved Waterstones".

Early life and education

Achilles James Daunt was born on 18 October 1963, the son of the diplomat Sir Timothy Daunt and his wife Patricia Susan Knight.

He was educated at Sherborne School, before reading history at Pembroke College, Cambridge University.

Career

His first job was as a purser with Carnival Cruise Lines.

After working in the US as a banker for JP Morgan between 1985 and 1988, he founded Daunt Books in 1990, a chain of six bookshops in London.

In May 2011, he was appointed managing director of Waterstones by the company's new owner, the Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut. The pair were listed at fourth place in a 2011 Guardian list of the top 100 people in the British books industry.

Daunt was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2017.

In June 2019, he became the CEO of the US bookshop chain Barnes & Noble, acquired by Waterstones' parent, Elliott Advisors (UK) for $683m.

In November 2021, Daunt interviewed Sir Paul McCartney to discuss McCartney's bestselling book "The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present".

Daunt was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to publishing.

Personal life

He is married to Katy Steward, a professional in the health sector. They have two daughters and live in Hampstead; they also have homes in Suffolk and on the Isle of Jura in Scotland.

References

(2014-12-10). "James Daunt: the man who saved Waterstones".
Jones, Callum. "James Daunt: The man who wrote the book on the daunting task of taking on Amazon". [[The Times]].
"Daunt Books Limited".
"Interview" by Oliver Shah in ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' Business Section, 22 December 2013, p. 6.
"Pembroke Gazette 2012".
Kate Kellaway, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jun/03/james-daunt-waterstones-interview "James Daunt: 'I don't recognise that books are dead'"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 3 June 2011.
James Hall, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8525575/James-Daunt-parachuted-in-to-run-Waterstones.html "James Daunt parachuted in to run Waterstone's"], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 20 May 2011.
[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/sep/23/james-daunt-alexander-mamut-books-power-100 Books Power 100: James Daunt and Alexander Mamut. No 4], ''The Guardian'', 24 September 2011.
Natasha Onwuemezi, [http://www.thebookseller.com/news/syal-and-mcdermid-named-new-rsl-fellows-564396 "Rankin, McDermid and Levy named new RSL fellows"], ''[[The Bookseller]]'', 7 June 2017.
"Current RSL Fellows". Royal Society of Literature.
Alexandra Alter and Tiffany Hsu, [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/07/books/barnes-noble-sale.html "Barnes & Noble Is Sold to Hedge Fund After a Tumultuous Year'"], ''[[New York Times]]'', 7 June 2019.
"Elliott to buy Barnes & Noble; Daunt will run both chains {{!}} The Bookseller".
Anderson, Porter. (2019-06-07). "Hedge Fund Elliott Mngt. Agrees to Buy Barnes & Noble".
Romaine, Jenna. (2021-12-06). "Paul McCartney reveals the Beatles were first all about the money". TheHill.
{{London Gazette. (1 June 2022)
(11 December 2014). "James Daunt: the man who saved Waterstones". [[Evening Standard]].
(27 May 2012). "James Daunt: the bibliophile who means business". The Guardian.
Allfree, Claire. (29 January 2025). "Waterstones CEO James Daunt: ‘We have stubbornly held on in places like Middlesbrough long after M&S left’".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1963-births living-people alumni-of-pembroke-college,-cambridge daunt-family english-booksellers people-educated-at-sherborne-school fellows-of-the-royal-society-of-literature 20th-century-english-businesspeople 21st-century-english-businesspeople commanders-of-the-order-of-the-british-empire

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about James Daunt — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report