Financier takes the chair at Peacocks
Gavin Simonds becomes non-executive chairman
Value fashion retail group Peacocks has appointed corporate finance specialist Gavin Simonds as non-executive chairman.
Simonds replaces John Lovering, who stood down from the chairman’s role last month to focus on Debenhams, where he is taking up the chairman’s role after being involved in the takeover by Baroness Retail last year.
Peacocks new chairman is a qualified accountant who spent over a decade as a corporate financier. During a five-year stint at Kleinwort Benson his clients included Littlewoods and Tesco.
In 1993 he became Joint Managing Director of Intercontinental Hotels Group, more than doubling profitability in the period leading up to its $2.9bn sale.
Simonds said: “I am delighted to be joining the Peacock team, who have done a tremendous job over the last couple of years in establishing the group as one of the UK’s leading clothing retailers. The business is well placed to make further good progress and I look forward to contributing to its development over the coming years.”
Peacock chief executive Richard Kirk said: “I am very pleased Gavin is joining the team. I am confident his enormous experience and complementary skills will make an important contribution to the Group’s future success.”
