Our People

Anthony Houghton is the Group CEO of Holland & Barrett and is also a member of its board of directors.   

Since joining the business in 2018, he has held senior positions including Group Retail and Property Director, Chief Operating Officer, and CEO UK & Ireland when he steered the health and wellness retailer through a major phase of transformation. His appointment as Group CEO in October 2025 reflects the company’s focus on stability and long-term growth.  

With over 30 years of retail leadership across household names, Anthony brings a strong record of delivering performance, driving large-scale change, and building high-performing teams. He is recognised for his consistent leadership, deep understanding of the business, and commitment to Holland & Barrett’s purpose of supporting customer health and wellness.  

In 2025 Anthony was recognised in the Retail 100, Retail Week's annual ranking of the most influential individuals in the sector. He also sits on the board of the Retail Trust, the charity which promotes the happiness and interests of those engaged in the retail trade. 

Eugene Chistyakov is Holland & Barrett’s President of Digital Transformation, joining in 2021 to lead the Technology division across Engineering, Product, Data, Cyber and Technology Operations.  Under his leadership, Holland & Barrett has built an enviable in-house technology capability, launching over 30 retail, supply chain and omnichannel systems to replace legacy tech estate with modern applications designed to power future business growth.  

A proven technology leader and entrepreneur, Eugene co-founded Lazada Group and served as its Group CTO during rapid scale-up. He was also previously President of Technology and Product of Ozon, a marketplace and logistics business well known as ‘The Amazon of Russia’. 

Guy Farmer is the Chief Commercial Officer at Holland & Barrett. With more than 30 years of experience in global consumer goods and retail, Guy leads the delivery of Holland & Barrett’s mission-led strategy across international markets. He is driving the transformation of the company’s product portfolio to meet customers’ most important health and wellness needs - combining trusted own-brand ranges with the best global wellness brands. 

Before joining Holland & Barrett, Guy held senior leadership roles at Procter & Gamble, L’Oréal, Walgreens Boots Alliance, and The Very Group. Throughout his career, he has built deep expertise in building global brands, leading retail commercial organisations, driving customer-led business transformation and developing high performance teams. 

At Holland & Barrett, Guy is focused on delivering sustainable growth through trusted, ethical, and innovative wellness products - helping make health and wellness accessible to all. 

Maria Anderson is our Chief People Officer. She has over 30 years of experience in HR, OD, Change & Transformation gained in permanent and consulting roles with some of the world’s most successful companies.  Maria joined Holland and Barrett in 2020, initially to focus on OD, People Change and Transformation and to prepare the organisation for business growth. She was appointed as Chief People Officer in April 2022, bringing a particular commercial focus alongside her care and compassion for our thousands of Holland and Barrett colleagues, and a desire to make Holland and Barrett an even better place to work. Since her appointment Maria has led the business to significantly improve colleague engagement to above industry benchmark, to reduce labour turnover and improve the Holland & Barrett colleague proposition. 

Prior to joining Maria worked across most industries and sectors including Consumer, Retail, Travel and Hospitality and Professional Services having been responsible for large business and people transformation projects, organisation design, M&A, international growth and restructuring. She has held senior HR Leadership roles at companies including Accenture and her previous clients include FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies such as BUPA, Kimberly Clark, Home Retail Group (Argos, Habitat and Homebase), TUI and Whitbread. 

Vineta Bajaj joined Holland & Barrett as Group Chief Financial Officer in September 2025. 

An experienced finance leader with deep expertise across digital, retail, and technology sectors, Vineta brings a proven track record in high-growth, multi-market businesses. Her vast experience spans the UK, Europe, US, and Asia and includes Ocado Group, the FTSE 100 online grocer and global technology provider, where she played a key role in major international deals, M&A and capital raises.

Prior to joining Holland & Barrett, she acted as Group CFO at Rohlik Group, a pan-European online grocery business operating across five countries, where she led the business through a turbulent time for online grocery, while achieving a $170 million capital raise, driving sustainable double digit revenue growth and strategic M&A.  

Alex joined as Executive Chair of H&B in January 2023. A qualified pharmacist, until May 2021, Alex was the Co-Chief Operating Officer for Walgreens Boots Alliance, a global integrated Healthcare, Pharmacy and Retail leader with approximately 13,000 stores and 300,000 colleagues across USA, Europe and Latin America.