A Marks & Spencer Group (M&S) director is leaving the retailer’s board after being blindsided by the hiring of its new finance chief from another company he chairs.
Sky News has learned that Andrew Fisher, a long-time employee IN non-executive director, only discovered late in the recruitment process that M&S intended to hire Alison Dolan from Rightmove, the listed digital property portal, as its finance director.
Fisher, who has been chairman of Rightmove since 2020, resigned from the M&S board on Tuesday last week.
The following day, M&S announced that Dolan – a former executive at the parent company of Sky News – would be joining it.
Latest Money:
£200 cash and free TV subscriptions offered as five rivals urge you to switch
Fisher has served on the M&S board since December 2015, meaning it was approaching the nine-year limit for independence under Britain’s corporate governance code.
He has been its senior independent director for several years, playing a role in the board’s delivery of a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of arguably Britain’s best-known retailer.
A source close to Rightmove said that although Fisher’s tenure at M&S was coming to an end, his position on the board had been made “untenable” by Dolan’s poaching.
He will now step down early next month and will not seek re-election to the M&S board at its annual shareholder meeting.
In its statement on his appointment, M&S said interim finance chief Jeremy Townsend would remain in post until May 2025 – almost a year – with Dolan’s start date being “announced in due course”.
It was unclear whether Rightmove would retain her for the full duration of her contract, which would be relatively unusual given she is not leaving to join a competitor.
One source played down the idea of a rift between the two companies as a result of Dolan’s recruitment, but acknowledged it was “not a great outcome” for Fisher.
It is the latest stage in M&S’s management overhaul, with co-CEO Katie Bickerstaffe also stepping down from the company, leaving Stuart Machin as sole executive in charge.
M&S shares were trading on Wednesday at around 308p, giving it a market valuation of just over £6bn, while Rightmove has a market capitalization of around £4.25bn.
Both M&S and Rightmove declined to comment.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
