Michael Wright is the CEO of Spinneys in the Middle East, a firm he first joined in Dubai in 1987 before the chain expanded regionally. Wright previously worked for Argyll Foods (Safeway/Presto) and at Tesco in the UK.  The Middle East grocery chain was established in Alexandria, Egypt by an ex-British Army serviceman to supply provisions to Palestine Railways. However, the crisis in Lebanon in the 1970s forced the high-end retailer to pare back its operations before the brand came back with a bang in the 1990s and 2000s. In the years since, the firm has aggressively snapped up market share in its home turf of Lebanon, as well as moving into new markets including Egypt, Qatar and Jordan. Wright has been spearheading the brand’s next stage of growth with an eye to open outlets in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq in addition to North African countries like Libya, Tunisia and Algeria.