End of the Terry Leahy era for Tesco as Ken Hanna and Stuart Chambers step down
The last two non-exec directors who served during Terry Leahy’s reign at Tesco are to step down, in another shake-up of its board following last year’s profit scandal.
Tesco said yesterday that Ken Hanna and Stuart Chambers would retire at the firm’s annual general meeting on 26 June, after serving on the board for six and five years respectively.
Hanna will be succeeded as chairman of the audit committee by Byron Grote, the former BP executive who joined as a non-executive on 1 May, Tesco said.
Tesco’s board has undergone a radical overhaul since Dave Lewis replaced Philip Clarke as chief executive last autumn in the wake of revelations that the firm had overstated profits by £263m.
Patrick Cescau, Gareth Bullock, Jacqueline Tammenoms Bakker and Liv Garfield have all departed the main board in recent months.
Hanna and Chambers’ exit marks a further step away from the Tesco under Leahy, who stepped down in March 2011.
Chambers is the chairman of Arm Holdings and Hanna is chairman of Inchcape and Aggreko.
Yesterday, John Allan, who succeeded Sir Richard Broadbent as chairman at the beginning of March, thanked the two departing non-execs for their service.
“On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Ken and Stuart for their loyal and valuable contributions to Tesco, and we wish them well for the future,” he said.
Last month, the firm posted an annual loss of £6.4bn, one of the biggest in UK corporate history.