Next chairman to retire and be succeeded by Michael Roney
Next has announced that its non-executive chairman John Barton is to retire and step down from the board in August.
He is to be succeeded by Michael Roney, the former chief executive of Bunzl.
Barton, who is 72, joined the Next board in 2002 and took up the chairmanship in 2006. In a statement, Next said that he had made “an outstanding contribution” to the company over the last fifteen 15 years.
Following a search for a successor, Roney has been appointed as an independent non-executive director, deputy chairman and chairman designate with effect from 14 February. He will take up the chairman’s role on 1 August.
Roney headed up Bunzl, a FTSE 100 listed distribution and outsourcing business, from 2005 until his retirement in April 2016.
He is currently chairman of Grafton Group and a non-executive director of Brown-Forman Corporation. His previous roles include non-executive director at Johnson Matthey.
