Nick Jones has stepped down as chief executive of Soho House owner Membership Collective Group after recovering from prostate cancer.

The founder of the upmarket members club on London’s Greek Street in 1995, will pass the reins to group president Andrew Carnie.

Jones, 59, built Soho House from a space for artists and actors to gather above his restaurant Cafe Boheme into a global empire with fans such as socialites and celebrities including Tom Cruise and Harry and Meghan.

Handing over the reins: Nick Jones and his wife Kirsty Young

Handing over the reins: Nick Jones and his wife Kirsty Young

Its New York-listed parent company MCG is now worth £233million, with more than 40 sites around the world and 211,000 members. 

It spans 38 Soho Houses, and a beach club in Mykonos. Jones will stay on in a role looking after the brand and designing new houses. 

Carnie will take over as chief executive under executive chairman Ron Burkle.

Jones said: ‘Over the last 27 years I have run Soho House and MCG by always putting members at the heart of everything we do. 

‘I am so proud of what we have achieved and grateful to all the teams who have helped us get to where we are.

‘I am going back to doing what I did for many years – which is the reason I went into business – giving people a good time, getting people to meet new people and creating lovely spaces.’

He grew up in Surrey and went to a boarding school in Oxfordshire. At 17 he decided on a career in catering as he was ‘obsessed with food’.

He is married to Kirsty Young, the former presenter of BBC radio show Desert Island Discs who had to step down for health reasons having been struck by rheumatoid arthritis and chronic pain disorder fibromyalgia. 

She delighted fans with a return to screens during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

MCG said member numbers jumped from 193,370 to 211,351 in the three months to October 2 – 46 per cent higher than the same time last year. Sales were £224million, 48 per cent higher.

But losses deepened, slipping to £77.4million from £65million. Its shares fell 17 per cent in New York.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk

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