Boots announces appointment of joint chief operating officers
Alex Gourlay, CEO of Boots health and beauty division, has appointed two chief operating officers to take on the day-to-day management of its Boots businesses in the UK and Ireland.
Boots said that Gourlay will continue to have overall accountability for the division.
Simon Roberts, retail director, Boots UK, and Ken Murphy, commercial director, Boots UK, will each take on the joint roles, reporting to Gourlay. Roberts will remain responsible for the retail and pharmacy aspects of the businesses and will now oversee Boots Opticians, while Murphy will continue to be responsible for the trading, brands, supply chain, commercial business development and marketing areas.
Boots said that the Executive Committee members and reporting lines would remain the same: Toon Clerckx (finance director, Health & Beauty Division), Stephen Lehane (HR director, Health & Beauty Division) and Ramon Mehra (transformation director, Boots UK) report to Alex Gourlay; and Elizabeth Fagan (marketing director, Boots UK) reports to Ken Murphy.
Alex Gourlay commented: “These appointments will enable us to have an even better balance between day-to-day performance and the longer term development of the Boots UK, Boots Ireland and Boots Opticians businesses. It will also allow us to concentrate on the strategic direction of the Division and how it can support Alliance Boots to further internationalise the Boots retail and product brands.”
Roberts joined Boots in 2003 and is responsible for operations across around 2,500 stores in the UK and Ireland. Prior to this, he spent the first 15 years of his career at M&S in a number of store, area and regional leadership roles.
Murphy joined the group in 1995 and most recently, held the role of commercial director for Boots UK. Prior to this, he was group business transformation director for Alliance Boots and led the integration of Alliance UniChem and Boots Group following the merger.
