Next announces board changes
Next has announced that Jane Shields, its group sales, marketing and HR director, is planning to retire from the company on 21 May.
She will be succeeded by Matt Barnes who will be promoted to the role of group sales and marketing director with responsibility for ecommerce, brand marketing, retail stores and online customer services.
Shields has worked with Next for 40 years and was praised by the company for her outstanding service. She joined the business as a sales assistant in 1985, was promoted to sales director in 1999, and group sales and marketing director in 2010. She was appointed to the Next board in 2013.
Barnes has been working with Next since 1999 and currently holds the position of online customer service director.
Next has also announced that Jonathan Bewes, senior independent director and chairman of the audit committee, will retire from the board following its AGM on 21 May after serving as a board member for nine years.
In addition, Annette Court and Jeni Mundy will be appointed as independent non-executive directors with effect from 1 March 2026 and 1 April 2026 respectively. Both will become members of the nomination, audit and remuneration committees and Court will be appointed as senior independent director from 21 May.
A former chief executive of Direct Line Group, Court has been chair of WH Smith since 2022 and is also a senior independent director of Sage Group.
Mundy was a non-executive director and chair of the corporate responsibility committee at Auto Trader from 2016 to 2025 and has previously held senior corporate roles at Visa and Vodafone.
Next has also confirmed that Soumen Das will be appointed as audit committee chair from 21 May.
