Appointments

The John Lewis Partnership has appointed Andy Martin as a non-executive director of the board and chair of its audit and risk committee. Until 2015, Martin was group chief operating officer, Europe and Japan, for Compass Group, having previously been group finance director from 2004 to 2012. Before joining Compass Group, he was group finance director at First Choice Holidays and prior to that held a number of senior finance roles at Granada Group.

Sir Charlie Mayfield, chairman of John Lewis Partnership, said: “I am incredibly pleased that Andy will be joining the Partnership board. Andy's wealth of business and financial experience will complement the strength of the board and we are looking forward to his input in shaping the continued development of our It's Your Business 2028 strategy.”

SIX Payment Services in Austria has appointed a new managing director, Christian Renk. His new role will be in addition to his position as head merchant services of Austria. Renk has been appointed to the management board and will head up the Austrian branch office with board chairman Andreas Labner.

“We are very pleased to welcome Christian Renk, an industry insider who is joining the management team in Austria and will further drive the successful development of the business,” commented Marc Schluep, head of business unit cards at SIX.

UK online retailer Shop Direct has hired Henry Birch to the role of group chief executive. Birch is currently CEO of Rank Group, which owns and operates Grosvenor Casinos and Mecca Bingo alongside several European gaming and casino businesses. Prior to joining Rank, Henry spent four years as CEO of William Hill Online, where he launched the company’s mobile business, driving 170 per cent growth in revenue.

Commenting on his appointment, Birch said: “I’m thrilled to be joining as unique and ambitious a business as Shop Direct. The company has been through an extraordinarily rapid and successful transformation over the last five years and flatly refuses to slow down. I’m looking forward to driving continued growth as Shop Direct continues to outpace its competition, and am excited to join the team to carve out the next chapter.”

UK retail software vendor itim has named Simon Evetts as UK managing director. Evetts previously held leadership roles at various consultancy and software businesses, including managing director of retail at Alvarez and Marsal, partner at IBM Global Business Services, chief technology officer at Javelin Group and product director at Retail Business Solutions.

Ali Athar, chief executive at itim, commented: “Simon will enable us to increase our engagement with clients at the most senior level. He has a wealth of experience in helping clients achieve successful business outcomes, especially around improved profitability and operational performance. He is one of the pioneers and thought leaders in multi-channel retailing, having first helped retailers go online nearly twenty years ago.”

Mastercard has announced the appointment of JoAnn Stonier as chief data officer. In the newly created role, Stonier will oversee the curation, maintenance and management of the company’s data assets. Stonier previously served as the company’s chief information governance and chief privacy officer.

Kevin Stanton, chief services officer at Mastercard, said: “JoAnn’s privacy background coupled with her extensive experience understanding how our data flows and powers our business makes her the ideal candidate to take our company forward. Her appointment reflects a thoughtful approach to this new position and to our data innovation overall.”

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