A former CEO and managing director of Woolworths, a major Australian retailer. Corbett became managing director of Woolworths in 1997 and CEO in 1999. He helped the company increase its revenue and net income. Woolworths became the No.1 food retailer in the region, and was able to face down numerous threats to its market share from major competitor Coles Myer.
Corbett spent his entire career in retail. He began working for Grace Brothers in 1963, went to David Jones in 1984 as director of operations and then moved to Woolworths' discount division, Big W, in 1990 as managing director.
Corbett was born in 1942 in Sydney, Australia, and holds an MBA from Stanford University. He retired from Woolworths in 2006. In that same year, he became a board member of Wal-Mart, a company whose strategies he employed while successfully leading Woolworths. Corbett has described Wal-Mart as “a company that sets the standard for retail excellence in the world.”
Investment dictionary. Academic. 2012.