The incoming chief executive of Tesco, Ken Murphy, is a Boots lifer who started his career in retail working the till in his dad’s shop at the age of 15.

The 52 year-old Irishman, who is a qualified accountant, has worked in health and beauty retail all his life. His first senior role was as finance director of pharmaceutical wholesaler UniChem which, following a string of mergers and tie-ups, became part of the same group as Boots the Chemists, now owned by the American multinational Walgreens Boots Alliance.

Murphy held progressively senior roles within the enlarged group, leading the integration of Alliance UniChem and Boots following their 2006 tie-up and reporting directly to the deal’s architect, the Italian billionaire Stefano Pessina.

Despite his pedigree at Boots, Murphy has largely flown under the radar in UK retail. He is married with three children and studied at both Cork University and Harvard Business School. He stood down as Walgreens chief commercial officer last year to move his family back to the UK but that decision was not connected to the Tesco job, which comes with a basic salary of £1.35m. He is still employed as a consultant by the US group with his precise start date at Tesco still to be confirmed.

Murphy told one interviewer the thing that kept him awake at night was “the ever-growing gap between those who have money and those who don’t in this country”. He also said his worse trait was that it “takes me a long time to switch off”. “Drives my wife nuts,” he said. At university he was a keen sailor and rugby player.

Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis said he knew Murphy from his time at Unilever: “I do know Ken. He used to be my customer a long time ago. He is a good man.”

Tesco chairman John Allen said Murphy’s values were aligned with the retailer’s and he had proven himself “at the very top of a large and respected multinational retail group”.

“I firmly believe we have the right person for the job,” he said.