John Lewis Partnership announces that Nish Kankiwala will revert to non-executive role
The chief executive of the John Lewis Partnership is to step back from his role and revert back to a non-executive position.
With the move due to take place by March 2025, the John Lewis Partnership said Nish Kankiwala will not be directly replaced as chief executive and that Jason Tarry, chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, will chair both the executive team and partnership board.
Meanwhile, Kankiwala will continue to support the next phase of the partnership’s transformation as a non-executive board advisor.
Rita Clifton, John Lewis Partnership deputy chairman, explained: “We created the CEO role at the beginning of 2023 because of the scale of the transformation and intense level of commercial focus needed in such unprecedented market circumstances.
“With his exceptional transformational experience and track record in consumer businesses, we asked Nish to move across from his non-executive director role to take on this new role of CEO for a concentrated period.
“We are deeply grateful that he agreed, and for all that he has delivered for the partnership in this particular phase of our transformation.
“We are delighted that Nish will support Jason during this transitional period. The partnership will also continue to benefit from Nish’s expertise in his continuing role as a non-executive advisor to the board.”
Tarry, who took over as John Lewis Partnership chairman from Dame Sharon White in September, said: “I would like to thank Nish for the pivotal role he has played for the partnership, first as non-executive director of the board and recently as CEO. In the past two years he has been instrumental in accelerating the transformation of the partnership”
The partnership announced Tarry’s appointment in April 2024. He was previously UK & Ireland chief executive at Tesco where he worked for 33 years.
