Angela Ahrendts arrived at our interview in a showroom at her new London headquarters with a bustling retinue. It is a busy time for the chief executive of Burberry, the fashion group, as the company prepared for its first show at London Fashion Week in over a decade.

In fact, Ms Ahrendts has been busy since she joined Burberry just over three years ago. She and Christopher Bailey, creative director, have re-focused the company on three main brands and introduced lucrative lines such as children's wear. She has also tackled costs: introducing computerised stock controls, streamlining manufacturing in the UK (partly by closing factories) and cutting the number of suppliers from 250 to 100.

Ms Ahrendts is steeped in fashion. The daughter of a former model, she was raised in New Palestine, Indiana. After graduating from Ball State University, she moved to New York and rose swiftly to become an executive vice-president at Henri Bendel, president of Donna Karan and then an EVP at Liz Claiborne.