
Please try another search
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's biggest sportswear retailer, JD (NASDAQ:JD) Sports Fashion, on Wednesday ousted longstanding executive chairman Peter Cowgill, saying its internal governance and controls had not kept pace with the firm's growth.
The FTSE-100 group said Cowgill, executive chairman since 2004, will step down from his role with immediate effect.
It said that following a governance review it had decided to accelerate the separation of the roles of chair and chief executive.
Helen Ashton, a JD non-executive director and chair of its audit and risk committee, will become non-executive chair, while Kath Smith, JD's senior non-executive director and a former Adidas (OTC:ADDYY), Reebok and The North Face executive, will become interim CEO.
JD said the process to recruit a CEO remains ongoing and a process will commence to recruit a new non-executive chair.
The company had said last year it would split Cowgill's role as executive chairman and recruit a CEO in 2022.
"As our business has become bigger and more complex, what is clear is that our internal infrastructure, governance and controls have not developed at the same pace," said Ashton.
"As we capitalise on the great opportunities ahead of us, the board is committed to ensuring that we have the highest standards of corporate governance and controls appropriate to a FTSE-100 company to support future growth."
Analysts were taken aback at the abruptness of Cowgill's exit.
"We anticipated a more gradual process: an internal appointment for the CEO role and Cowgill to remain as chair to oversee the transition for a couple of years," said Shore Capital analyst Eleonora Dani.
Last week JD upgraded its profit outlook.
Shares in JD closed down 6.1%.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The latest season of Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX)'s "Stranger Things" has pushed total viewership for the series to more than 1.15 billion hours, the...
By Jonathan Stempel and Jessica DiNapoli NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ben & Jerry's on Tuesday sued its parent Unilever (NYSE:UL) Plc to block the sale of its Israeli business to a local...
By Liz Moyer Investing.com -- Energy shares sold off sharply on Tuesday after crude oil prices plunged 10%, with WTI falling below $100 a barrel. Oil majors felt the hit, with...
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
I feel that this comment is:
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.