Appointments: Midlands Engine chairman to leave Burberry; Clearwater appoints Morrisons chairman

Sir John Peace

Fashion retailer Burberry has designs on a new chairman after it assigned responsibility for the search to its senior independent director.

Sir John Peace, who is also the chairman of the Midlands Engine, has headed the luxury brand since 2002 when it split from GUS, where he was then chief executive.

In a statement to the stock market, the FTSE 100 company said: “It will be the responsibility of Jeremy Darroch as the newly appointed SID to lead the process of appointing a successor to Sir John Peace.  It is anticipated that a successor will be announced by the end of 2018.”

Darroch has been a non-executive director at Burberry for three years, and will become its senior independent director on July 1.

Sir John is the chairman of Standard Chartered plc and has been Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire since 2012.

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Corporate finance house Clearwater International has hired Morrisons chairman Andy Higginson as its UK chairman.

Higginson, who spent 15 years on the board of Tesco and was previously chairman of Poundland, has been a key player in the revival of retailer Morrisons in the last two years and his personal stock is high in the City.

Phil Burns, managing director of Clearwater International UK, said: “His background speaks for itself and the experience it gives him will be invaluable to help develop our strategy, but also to complement our skills in the advice we give to clients, as we develop excellent outcomes for them.”

It was announced last week Higginson will step down as chairman of fashion retailer N Brown to enable him to take up the position with Clearwater. He is currently chairman of ITC Luxury Travel, a luxury tour operator, and a non-executive director of Woolworths South Africa.

Higginson added: “I am pleased to be joining Clearwater in this important point in their development. In the last couple of years, they have grown from a domestic business to offer very impressive international coverage. What has really impressed me is their focus on the client and putting them first. I’m excited at the prospect of working alongside the Clearwater partners with more mid-market and private equity backed businesses.”

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