Ann Summers Executive Chair Jacqueline Gold Dies at 62

Jacqueline Gold, executive chair of Ann Summers and the executive who created the company's home party plan business, has died at the age of 62.

The company said Gold died on the evening of Thursday, March 16, 2023, after seven years of treatment for breast cancer. Her husband Dan, daughter Scarlett, sister Vanessa and brother-in-law Nick were with her.

Her death came two months after that of her father, David Gold, who bought the business with his brother Ralph in 1972, the year after the first Ann Summers shop opened. David Gold, who was also joint chairman of West Ham United, died in January 2023 at the age of 86.

Jacqueline Gold joined the family firm as an intern and went on to reposition the brand toward women. In the early 1980s she set up a party service, run by women for women, in which hosts held home parties to show lingerie and adult products. The resulting growth in sales fueled the expansion of the chain's high street stores, which numbered 88 across the UK and Ireland at the time of her death. She was made a CBE in 2016 for services to entrepreneurship, women in business and social enterprise.

Her sister Vanessa Gold, chief executive of Ann Summers, said: "She was a trailblazer, a visionary, and the most incredible woman, all of which makes this news that much harder to bear."