David Arculus

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Sir David Arculus (born 1946) is an English businessman, ranked at number 39 in The Sunday Times Power100 of 2005.^[1]

Educated at Oriel College University of Oxford and the London Business School, he was a producer for the BBC from 1968 to 1974. He joined EMAP in 1972, launching many new magazines. This included Smash Hits, a journal that printed words to pop songs, which went from an initial circulation of 10,000 to one million within a year, helping to transform EMAP from a regional newspaper group into an extensive publishing house. Arculus as a result worked his way up to Group Managing Director, leaving Emap in 1997.

He was also chief operating officer of United News and Media plc; chairman of IPC Media; chairman of Earls Court and Olympia Ltd; and a non-executive director of Pearson Ltd.

Away from the media sector, he was a non-executive director of Severn Trent from 1996, serving as non-executive chairman from 1998 until 2004. Arculus was a non-executive director of Norcros from 1993 to 1996, of Barclays Bank from 1997, and Geest in 2002. He is also non-executive chairman of O2 plc, and a director of Telefónica.

Arculus was chairman of the British government's Better Regulation Task Force from April 2002 to December 2005, where he helped bring about a number of regulation initiatives intended to reduce burdens on business. These included the introduction of common commencement dates; the new concept of 'one in, one out', and the announcements made in the 2005 Budget to measure and cut administrative burdens and to introduce simplification measures that were key recommendations from the Task Force report Regulation - Less is More.

Arculus has also been a member of the National Consumer Council.