SIR Roy Gardner succeeded Paul Stapleton as chairman of Plymouth Argyle on July 2, 2009.

Sir Roy became Chairman of Compass Group PLC on July 1, 2006 having been appointed Senior Non-executive Director in October 2005. He was appointed as a director of Willis Group Holdings Limited in April 2006 and as a senior advisor at Credit Suisse in July 2006. In June 2008, Sir Roy was appointed a non-executive director of Mainstream Renewable Power Limited. Prior to these appointments he was Chief Executive of Centrica plc, which trades in Britain under the British Gas brand.

Centrica plc was formed on the demerger of the supply, services and retail businesses of the former British Gas plc in February 1997 which company Sir Roy joined in November 1994 as Executive Director, Finance.

Before joining British Gas, Sir Roy Gardner was Managing Director of GEC Marconi Limited and was appointed to the Board of GEC in 1994. Prior to that, Sir Roy was Chief Operating Officer of Northern Telecom Europe Limited following their take-over of STC plc, previous to which he was Managing Director of STC Communications Systems and a member of the Board of STC plc. He joined STC in January 1986, as Finance Director, from the Marconi Company Limited, where he was Group Finance Director between 1979-1985. Sir Roy began his career at the British Aircraft Corporation where he worked in the Commercial Aircraft Division.

On January 1, 2000, Sir Roy was appointed as a non-executive director of Manchester United plc, and assumed the role of Non-Executive Chairman on March 31, 2002 until June 6, 2005. He was a non-executive director of Laporte plc from December 1996 until the company's takeover in April 2001.

In February 1998, he was appointed President of the Carers National Association, now Carers UK. He is also a Trustee of the Development Trust (for the Mentally Handicapped). In December 2002, Sir Roy was appointed by Chancellor Gordon Brown as Chairman of the Apprenticeships Task Force and now chairs the successor body, Apprenticeship Ambassadors Network. He also chaired Ambition:Energy as a member of the National Employment Panel. Sir Roy was appointed President of the Energy Institute in June 2007 and, in October 2007, was also appointed Chairman of the British Olympic Appeal Committee for Beijing 2008. In November 2007, Sir Roy took on the role of Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Energy Futures Lab at Imperial College, London.

Sir Roy is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, the Royal Aeronautical Society, and the Royal Society of Arts. He is also a Companion of the Institute of Management. In July 2008, he was appointed as a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University.

Sir Roy was knighted in 2002 for services to the Gas and Electricity Industries.

Aged 63, he is married with one son and two daughters. He lives in Hertfordshire and is a keen follower of most sports. In the past, he has raised money for a number of charities by completing the London Marathon in 1987, 1991 and 1992, the New York Marathon in 1996, and by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in October 1999.