Peel heavyweights join Pinewood board

FOUR directors at Peel Holdings have been appointed to the board of Pinewood Shepperton following its takeover of the film studio.

Peel chairman John Whittaker joins as a non-exec along with his company secretary Neil Lees, corporate development director for media Mark Senior, and director of legal and corporate affairs Peter Hosker.

They join Peel’s corporate development director Steven Underwood who was already on the board.

To make way for the appointees three Pinewood directors are leaving the business: Adrian Burn, James Donald and Nigel Hall.

It means Peel representatives make up five of the nine board members. The others are: chairman Lord Grade, chief executive Ivan Dunleavy, finance director Patrick Garner and sales and marketing director Nick Smith.

The changes follow Peel’s acquisition of 71% of the business at 200p a share. Manchester-based Peel was prevented from gaining a larger share by Stockport jeweller Warren James which bought 27% of the shares.

Peel had set its sight on buying up more than 75% which would have enabled it to take the business private.