People: The Works; Curium; National Grid

Former PwC corporate finance partner Stuart Warriner has joined the board of Sutton Coldfield-based retailer The Works.

Warriner retired last month after 30 years at PwC, which included 10 years leading its corporate finance team in the North of England from Leeds and Manchester. 

Warriner joins The Works’ board led by Dean Hoyle, founder of Card Factory, with the store portfolio having grown close to 400 and with an established trend of rising sales and profit.

Hoyle said: “Stuart is a highly respected corporate finance specialist. His decision to join The Works is a real coup for us and is testament to the strength and continued growth potential of this business.”

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Birmingham-based change consultancy Curium Solutions has boosted its learning team with the appointment of learning and development expert Jo Rix, who joins from Mars UK. 

Jo becomes part of Curium’s Capability practice, which develops the capability of an organisation’s leaders and teams.

During her time at Mars, Jo held regional and national account manager roles, as well as spending five years as a sales capability manager and coach within the Mars Chocolate division. In this role, she ran a sales training programme for more than 350 staff each year, helping them to improve their selling, negotiation, presentation, customer engagement and account management skills.

James Farrow, founding director and learning specialist, said: “We are really pleased to welcome Jo to the team. She has a great CV but, more importantly, she has the desire, drive and determination to make a real difference to the people she works with. This attitude matches the Curium spirit and culture.”

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National Grid has appointed Pierre Dufour as a non-executive director.

Pierre will join the FTSE 100 company’s safety, environment and health, remuneration and nominations committees.   

Sir Peter Gershon, chairman of National Grid, said: “His wealth of experience will bring great value to our Board and to the Remuneration and Nominations Committees.

“Additionally his strong track-record in safety and industrial risk management, and the supervision of complex multinational engineering projects makes him ideally placed to strengthen the expertise on our Safety, Environment and Health Committee.”

Pierre has spent 20 years with Air Liquide, where his roles have included chief executive of its US operations and chairman of its Canadian division.