Tesco appoints John Allen as Chairman

Following Richard Broadbent’s decision to step down as Chairman, Tesco today announces that John Allan will join the Board and be appointed Chairman on 1 March 2015. Richard Broadbent will step down from the Board on the same date.

Richard Broadbent, Chairman, said:

“I am delighted that John has agreed to join us and take on the role of Chairman of the Board. I am sure that his wide expertise, his experience and his personal qualities will contribute greatly to the future of the Group.”

Patrick Cescau, Senior Independent Director, said:

“Following a deep and thorough process run by a committee of independent non-executive directors, the Board unanimously agreed that John Allan was the right candidate to chair Tesco at this important time. On behalf of the Board I would like to thank Richard for his work as Chairman. He has served the business with unflinching commitment through a period of unprecedented change, and put in place a new senior leadership team for the next stage of Tesco's development.”

John Allan said:

"I'm very pleased to be taking on this role at such a critical moment for the business and look forward to working with the new executive team and the Board.”

John Allan’s early career was with Lever Bros and Bristol-Myers in a variety of marketing roles. He then spent eight years at Fine Fare, a subsidiary of ABF where he was the Retail Director for Marketing, Buying and Retail Operations. He was a Divisional CEO at BET for nine years. He became CEO of Ocean Group plc in 1994 and then of Exel when Ocean Group merged with NFC in 2000 to become Exel plc, the global leader in Logistics, operating in 60 countries and ultimately with 115,000 employees. Exel was acquired by Deutsche Post in 2005 for a share price five times that of 1994, and John joined the board of Deutsche Post to manage the integration, and subsequently the new Logistics Division with 150,000 employees and a turnover of over 27 bn Euros. In 2007 he was invited to become CFO of Deutsche Post - a post he held until his retirement and return to the UK in 2009.

John became Chairman of Dixons Retail in Sept 2009. Dixons conducted a comprehensive turnaround programme during which the share price more than quadrupled, culminating in a friendly merger of equals with Carphone Warehouse in August 2014 to form Dixons Carphone. He is currently a Deputy Chairman and SID of the new company, which was the best performer in the FTSE 100 in 2014. He is also Chairman of Barratt Developments and Chairman of Worldpay.

Source : Tesco Press Release
www.tescoplc.com/index.asp?pageid=17&newsid=1135