New Tesco CFO Alan Stewart joins supermarket two months early
Tesco has announced that its new chief financial officer Alan Stewart is joining the company immediately instead of on 1 December as originally planned.
The move follows news yesterday that an accounting error had resulted in the supermarket overstating its profit guidance for the six months to 23 August by £250 million.
Stewart was formerly chief financial officer at Marks & Spencer where he stepped down in July to go on ‘gardening leave’ as part of his contractual notice period. He was recruited by Tesco to succeed Laurie McIlwee who left the business just over a week ago following his resignation in April.
It is understood that Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis made a direct appeal to Marks & Spencer boss Marc Bolland to ask him to agree to an early termination of Stewart’s contract.
Never Miss a Retail Update!Yesterday Lewis said there would be a comprehensive investigation regarding the overstatement. Four Tesco senior executives been suspended while the investigation takes place.
