Background
Harding is the daughter of Lord Harding, and the grand-daughter of Field Marshal John Harding, 1st Baron Harding of Petherton, who commanded the Desert Rats in World World War World War II
Harding is the daughter of Lord Harding, and the grand-daughter of Field Marshal John Harding, 1st Baron Harding of Petherton, who commanded the Desert Rats in World World War World War II
Raised on the family pig farm in Dorset, she was educated at Street Antony"s Leweston from 1978-1985. She then graduated from the University of Oxford in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, where she studied under Vernon Bogdanor and alongside David Cameron. And then at Harvard Business School, gaining an Master of Business Administration.
On graduation she joined the management consultancy McKinsey & Company. Leaving to become marketing director at Thomas Cook Group, she was then appointed commercial director at Woolworths Group. She then joined Tesco within Sir Terry Leahy"s office as international support director, before being appointed commercial director of “added-value foods” in 2001.
Resigning her position in October 2007, she joined the board of directors at Sainsbury"s as convenience director
She was named Chief Executive Officer of TalkTalk in 2010, during the period when the group split its Carphone Warehouse retail operation from the group telecoms operation. She was appointed as a non-executive director on The Court of The Bank of England in July 2014.
She has also served on the boards of British Land and Cheltenham Racecourse. In October 2015, TalkTalk experienced a "significant and sustained cyber-attack", during which personal and banking details of up to four million customers is thought to have been accessed.
City Master of Arts described her responses as "naive", noting that early on when asked if the affected customer data was encrypted or not, she replied: "The awful truth is that I don’t know".
Her "inflexible line" on termination fees was also criticised. Marketing ran a headline, "TalkTalk boss Dido Harding"s utter ignorance is a lesson to us all". The Evening Standard noted that "lieutenant has been a tough week for TalkTalk boss Dido Harding, facing complaints from customers and calls for her head"
She was created a Conservative Life Peer on 15 September 2014, taking the title Baroness Harding of Winscombe, of Nether Compton in the County of Dorset.