Lady Judge to leave Portmeirion after racism and sexism allegations

Lady Judge, who resigned as chair of the Institute of Directors after allegations of racism and sexism earlier this month, is to also leave her role at pottery company Portmeirion Group.

In a short statement to the stock market, Portmeirion revealed she would “not be seeking re-election” to the board at May’s AGM.

Lady Judge has been a non-executive director for 18 years at the Stoke-on-Trent company. She had been chair of the IoD since May 2015 before her term came to a premature end after being secretly recorded by the organisation’s director-general.

In her resignation letter to the IoD, Lady Judge said: “I continue to strongly refute the allegations made against me and remain deeply disturbed by the gross and conspiratorial mishandling of the process which has led to the damaging circumstances in which I and the Institute are now placed.”

Portmeirion announced last week that it had achieved a ninth consecutive year of record revenues and profits. Pre-tax profits rose 13% in 2017, to £8.8m, while revenues were up 10% to £84.8m.