Mark Dixon, one of Britain’s most enduring entrepreneurs, is to step aside as chief executive of International Workplace Group nearly four decades after he founded the company.

Christian Schmitz, a former McKinsey partner and onetime director at the private equity firm KKR, will succeed Dixon in the top job, IWG confirmed in a statement to the stock market. Schmitz joined the group last year as chief transformation officer before being promoted to global head of all regions.

Dixon, 66, will move up to executive chairman, a role in which he will “continue to provide strategic guidance to the board and act as an advisor to the CEO”, the company said. He still owns just over a quarter of the shares in IWG, and the board framed his new position as a way to “maintain Mark Dixon’s unrivalled industry knowledge, experience and long-term strategic perspective through an orderly CEO transition process”.

IWG is the world’s largest provider of flexible workspace and sits behind a stable of brands including Regus, Spaces and Signature. The group operates more than 4,000 locations across some 120 countries, a footprint that has expanded sharply as employers have embraced hybrid working. The shift has been good for business: demand for flexible space recently drove IWG’s revenues to a record £3.3 billion.

Dixon founded the business in Brussels in 1989, at the age of 29. The idea came to him after watching businesspeople hold meetings in coffee shops and concluding that the traditional office was overdue for a rethink. That hunch has since reshaped how millions of people work, and the rise of serviced offices built for hybrid working has kept the model firmly in fashion.

He is one of the few people in Britain to have built a business worth more than £1 billion, and one of the longest-serving chief executives across the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250, of which IWG is a constituent. The company is valued at about £1.8 billion on the stock market. Dixon’s stake leaves him with a personal fortune of £931 million, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.

His route to the top was anything but conventional. Dixon left school at 16 to start a business, and by the time he launched IWG, then called Regus, he had already tried his hand at selling sandwiches and running a bakery.

The company he created has weathered more than one storm. After rapid growth through the 1990s, it was badly hit by the dotcom crash in the early 2000s, when many of the start-ups renting its desks went bust. Its US arm entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Dixon was forced to sell a stake in the UK business, though he later regained control and bought the operations back. More recently he has trimmed his holding, selling £68.5 million of shares to repay a bank loan.

Dixon cast the leadership change as a long-term bet on the company’s future rather than a retreat. “This is an investment in the future. I am a very significant investor in the business and I want to get the right management to take it forward to the next stage,” he said. “It’s about succession planning, doing the right thing for the company and for the company’s future. We are doing very well. There is lots of opportunity, but you need the right management team and the right leadership to take it to the next level.”

He praised Schmitz for his “superb leadership skills and lots of experience”.

Asked what had been the key to building IWG, Dixon returned to a single word: perseverance. “You’ve got to persevere. If you look at the history of the company, it’s the management of capital and perseverance from the beginning,” he said. “It’s also about hiring the right people. That’s what we’re doing here with the investment in Christian. It’s not a one-man activity, it’s always about people.”

Amy Ingham

Amy is a newly qualified journalist specialising in business journalism at Business Matters with responsibility for news content for what is now the UK’s largest print and online source of current business news.

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LONDON — A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a 3-year-old boy ended up in a crocodile enclosure at an English zoo Thursday afternoon, leaving the child with serious injuries and critically but stably hospitalized.

The “distressing incident” occurred Thursday afternoon at Johnsons of Old Hurst, a family-run farm and zoo located in Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, police said. Cambridgeshire Police said officers were called to the zoo at 1:24 p.m. to reports of an incident involving a three-year-old boy, during which he ended up in the crocodile enclosure.

The Boy’s Condition

The boy “ended up in the crocodile enclosure” and was taken to a local hospital, where he was in critical but stable condition, Cambridgeshire police said. The child has been taken to the hospital with serious injuries and is in critical but stable condition, police said, adding that specially trained officers are supporting the boy and his family.

The Arrest

A 30-year-old man from Norfolk was arrested, and police say they do not believe he and the child are known to each other, and an investigation is underway. A 30-year-old man who is an apparent stranger to the child has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with the incident, police said.

Detective Inspector Verity McCann, leading the investigation, described the early stages of the inquiry. “At this stage we are speaking to people who were at the zoo at the time of this distressing incident to understand more about the circumstances,” said Detective Inspector Verity McCann.

A Possible Rescue Attempt

Local accounts have suggested that a member of the zoo’s ownership family may have intervened during the incident in an effort to help the child. A villager who did not want to be named told the Press Association that the zoo owner’s wife, Tracey Johnson, jumped in to try to save the child. That detail has not been independently confirmed by Cambridgeshire Police in their official statements on the incident.

The Zoo’s Response

Johnsons of Old Hurst issued a statement on social media following the incident, expressing condolences to the boy and his family. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the boy and his family following the incident that occurred today,” Johnsons of Old Hurst said in a statement on social media Thursday.

The zoo also announced a decision to close part of its facility in the wake of the incident. Johnsons of Old Hurst said its tropical house, which is home to multiple species of crocodiles and other reptiles, will remain closed until further notice “out of respect to the family.”

An Active and Ongoing Investigation

Police have emphasized that the investigation remains in its early stages, with officers working to gather witness accounts and establish a clearer picture of exactly how the incident unfolded. This is a developing story and will be updated with the latest information as soon as it becomes available, according to one local outlet covering the case as details continue to emerge.

Cambridgeshire Police have not yet released additional details about the specific circumstances that led to the boy ending up inside the enclosure, nor have they elaborated further on the nature of the relationship — or lack thereof — between the arrested man and the child’s family beyond confirming they do not believe the two are known to each other.

A Family-Run Attraction in Rural Cambridgeshire

Johnsons of Old Hurst operates as a family-run farm and zoo in the village of Old Hurst, near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, in eastern England. The facility’s tropical house, now closed indefinitely following Thursday’s incident, houses a collection of crocodiles and other reptile species as one of its featured attractions for visitors.

The zoo’s decision to voluntarily close that section of the facility reflects both the gravity of the incident and an apparent effort by management to allow space for the investigation to proceed and for the affected family to process what police have described as a deeply distressing event.

What Happens Next

With the 30-year-old suspect now in custody on suspicion of attempted murder and the boy remaining hospitalized in critical but stable condition, the investigation is expected to continue in the coming days as Cambridgeshire Police work to interview additional witnesses who were present at the zoo at the time of the incident. Detective Inspector McCann’s comments suggest investigators are still working to establish a complete account of what occurred before any further details about specific charges or the circumstances of the incident are likely to be released publicly.

Authorities have not indicated when additional information about the case might be made available, and no further updates regarding either the boy’s medical condition or the status of the criminal investigation had been released as of the most recent police statement.

Jordan Spieth has admitted that he has found the majority of the courses on the PGA Tour extremely challenging this season, as he reflected on a mixed year so far ahead of his return to the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills — a course where he previously missed the cut and a tournament where his career record remains surprisingly thin.

The Memorial Tournament marked perhaps the lowest point in Spieth’s season so far, with the 32-year-old missing the cut after posting a 79 on Friday at Muirfield Village.

A Season of Consistency Without a Breakthrough

Despite that recent setback, Spieth’s overall body of work this season has shown a notable level of week-to-week consistency, even if it has yet to produce a signature result. It is quite remarkable that he has registered eight top-25 finishes without breaking into the top 10. He finished tied for 11th at both Bay Hill and the Valspar Championship.

That pattern of steady, if unspectacular, finishes reflects what appears to be genuine all-around improvement in his game, even as the results have not yet translated into the kind of statement performance fans have come to expect from the three-time major champion. Spieth is arguably becoming a solid all-around golfer. He is not outside the top 100 on the PGA Tour for any of the major strokes gained categories.

However, that broad-based competence has not yet resulted in the three-time major champion contending for a first victory on the PGA Tour since the 2022 RBC Heritage — a winless drought that has now stretched across multiple seasons.

Explaining the Difficulty of This Year’s Setups

Spieth offered insight into why he may be struggling to find his very best form this season when asked by CBS Sports about his preparations ahead of the major championships, specifically heading into the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.

“No, frankly we have played probably 12 US Opens this year, it has felt like. The courses have been brutally hard this season. It’s kind of nice,” he said.

Far from framing the difficulty purely as a complaint, Spieth suggested the unusually demanding course setups this season may actually serve as valuable preparation for the brutal test that typically awaits players at the U.S. Open. “It’s nice to have already played it before in a US Open. That limits the field down to a lot less people who were actually there. I kind of know what to expect heading into it I guess, as far as what it is going to require,” he said.

Gathering Intelligence From Players Who Have Already Competed There

Beyond his own previous experience at the venue, Spieth indicated he has also been actively seeking out information from fellow competitors who had already played the course before this year’s championship. “Then I have asked some questions from some guys who have already gone and played it. Is it going to be the narrower one or is it going to be the one in 18 where they left it a bit wider but you better hit the fairway that they give you. It seems like that will be the route,” he said.

That kind of scouting reflects a broader theme in Spieth’s comments about the specific demands the course places on a player’s short game and precision around the greens. “I remember the greens but hitting on those, you started working on a bit more touch and finesse and chipping and stuff like that. There’s definitely a bit more work as you get closer to the green, when you are preparing for a US Open you have to be a bit tighter,” he said.

A Career-Defining Win That Hasn’t Repeated

Spieth’s relationship with the U.S. Open carries particular historical weight given how his career began. Spieth made a real statement with his victory at Chambers Bay in 2015. The win meant that he had taken home the first two majors of the year.

It was difficult not to feel that Spieth was destined to dominate the game for some time. Certainly, few would have ever imagined that he would only win one more major heading into 2026.

A Surprisingly Difficult Championship for Spieth

Despite his breakthrough victory at Chambers Bay, the U.S. Open has proven to be a notably difficult championship for Spieth to replicate success in over the course of his career. It may be a real surprise to some to know that Spieth’s U.S. Open record is incredibly poor. In fact, the 2015 win marks the only time he has finished inside the top 10 at the event.

Meanwhile, he has missed the cut four times, most recently in 2023. That spotty record stands in contrast to his performance at golf’s other major championships, where Spieth has generally remained a more consistent contender throughout his career.

A Difficult History at Shinnecock Hills Specifically

The challenge facing Spieth this week carries an added layer of significance given his prior experience at this particular venue. Crucially, he did not make it through to the weekend when the U.S. Open was last at Shinnecock. It was the only major that year where Spieth finished outside the top 12.

That previous missed cut at Shinnecock adds extra motivation for Spieth as he returns to the course this week, armed with what he describes as a season’s worth of preparation against unusually demanding course conditions on the PGA Tour. He will hope that the PGA Tour season so far has properly prepared him for the upcoming test.

With Spieth now back at Shinnecock Hills for the first time since his earlier missed cut at the venue, his comments suggest a golfer who has approached this season’s difficult course setups not merely as a source of frustration, but as a deliberate, if unintentional, form of preparation for exactly the kind of brutal test the U.S. Open is known to present. Whether that preparation translates into a better result than his previous trip to Shinnecock — or his broader U.S. Open record overall — will become clear as the championship unfolds this week, with Spieth still chasing his first PGA Tour victory since 2022 and his second career U.S. Open title since that breakthrough win a decade ago at Chambers Bay.