Fairburn was previously CEO of Persimmon plc, a British housebuilding company and constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, from April 2013 to November 2018.
[1] In December 2017, Persimmon's chairman, Nicholas Wrigley, resigned over his role in awarding Fairburn a bonus in the region of £100 million.
[5] The Persimmon bonus scheme is believed to be the UK's "most generous ever", and was scheduled to pay more than £500 million to 150 senior staff from 31 December 2016.
[10][12] In April 2021, Berkeley DeVeer partnered with Elliott Advisors to acquire Derbyshire-based housebuilder Avant Homes Group.
[13] After Elliott Advisors also built a stake in Taylor Wimpey, there was speculation that Fairburn might take over as the rival housebuilder's CEO, but this was dismissed in December 2021.