Marston’s PLC has announced two non-executive appointments to the Board. In addition, Robin Rowland will step down from the Board as a Non-executive Director with effect from the end of July.
Bridget Lea (pictured) and Octavia Morley will join the Board as independent Non-executive Directors with effect from 1 September 2019 and 1 January 2020 respectively.
Lea is Managing Director (North) at J Sainsbury PLC and has had a distinguished career working across multiple leading retail brands.
Starting at Marks & Spencer in 1994, she went on to hold senior positions - spanning a wide range of disciplines including sales, operations, marketing, supply chain and digital - within retail corporates such as at Body Shop International Ltd, Clarks Shoes Ltd, Uniqlo Europe Ltd, Oasis Stores PLC, Arcadia Group Ltd and Telefonica UK Ltd/O2.
Most recently, she was Director of Stores, Online and Omnichannel at O2 where she led the re- engineering of the store experience, development of an industry-leading digital experience and the omnichannel transformation.
Morley has extensive experience in executive and Non-executive roles in retail and multisite companies having held various senior operational and strategic roles across all areas of retail at companies including Asda Stores Limited, Laura Ashley Holdings PLC and Woolworths plc, Octavia became Chief Executive Officer, and then Chair, at LighterLife UK Limited.
She was subsequently appointed Managing Director at Crew Clothing Co Ltd and then went on to become Chief Executive at OKA Direct Limited.
Morley is currently Executive Chair of Spicers-Office Team Group Ltd. She is also Senior Independent Director at Card Factory PLC and a Non-executive Director of Crest Nicholson Holdings PLC and Ascensos Ltd; she is a former Non-executive director of John Menzies PLC.
Robin Rowland will step down from the Board as a Non-executive Director of Marston’s with effect from 31 July 2019. The Board would like to thank him formally for his contribution during his nine year tenure with the Group.
William Rucker, Chairman of Marston’s PLC, commented, “I am delighted to welcome both Bridget and Octavia to Marston’s. They are extremely high calibre additions to the Board and bring with them extensive experience of a wide range of leading consumer retail businesses which is highly relevant to Marston’s pub retailing and brewing operations. Their respective skillsets and insight will be of great value to the Group and we look forward to working with them.
“On behalf of the Board, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Robin Rowland for his contribution over his nine year tenure as a Non-executive Director of Marston’s. His passion, energy and experience of the wider eating out market has been hugely beneficial during his time with the business and we wish him every success with his future ventures.”