Poundland Group Plc.(PLND.L) announced Tuesday that it has appointed Darren Shapland, currently the Senior Independent Director, as its new Chairman with immediate effect. Darren will take over from Andrew Higginson, who has informed the Board of his wish to step down.
Darren Shapland has over 25 years retail and consumer experience across the Burton Group / Arcadia, Kingfisher, Carpetright and Sainsburys. He trained as a Chartered Certified Accountant and qualified in 1989 when with the Burton Group, going on to hold a number of senior financial and operational roles including Group Planning Controller, Supply Chain Director, Finance Director for Top Shop / Top Man, Finance Director for Arcadia Brands and then Managing Director for the Arcadia Home Shopping Business and Digital Business. In 2000 he joined Kingfisher as Chief Financial Officer for Superdrug. He became Group Finance Director of Carpetright in 2002 with responsibility for all the core finance functions plus Logistics, IT, HR, Internal Audit and IR. Following three years at Carpetright he joined Sainsburys as Chief Financial Officer with responsibility for Finance, IR, Audit, Property, IT and was Chairman of Sainsburys Bank.
In 2010 he took on the Executive Director brief for the Sainsburys New Businesses (as Group Development Director) and ran Convenience, Digital, Bank, Property, Overseas Development, New Business Development and Strategy. In 2011 he re-joined Carpetright initially as a non- executive Director before becoming Chief Executive. He left Carpetright in late 2013 and has started to build a portfolio of business interests. He was appointed a non-executive Director of Poundland in February 2014 and is also a non-executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee at Ladbrokes and recently joined the Board of Wolseley.
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