British Retail Consortium appoints Jo Whitfield as chairman-elect
The British Retail Consortium has selected Jo Whitfield to succeed Andy Higginson as its new chair.
She will take up her new role on 2 October when Higginson’s tenure expires.
With 25 years’ experience in retail, Whitfield is a former chief executive of Matalan and Co-op Food, and has also previously held senior roles at Asda.
She is currently a non-executive and audit chair at Asda and a non-executive and chair of ethics committee at Factory International, host of the Manchester International Festival.
Subscribe to TRBWhitfield previously founded and chaired The Grocery Girls network and served as an advisor and retail sector lead on the Women’s Business Council. She also played a prominent industry role, working with the BRC to secure stronger safety recognition and drive a change in the law to better protect retail shopworkers.
She will be joined by Eve Williams, VP and general manager of eBay UK, as a new non-executive director on the BRC board.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive at the BRC, said: “Jo and Eve join the board as we deal with multiple public policy headwinds and more to do on big issues like climate change, inclusion, and creating the right environment for growth and investment.
“I know how passionate they both are on these areas and particularly on people so it’s great to welcome two more women to our board and our first female chair.
“It has been a pleasure working with Andy and I would like to thank him for his pragmatic, down to earth advice, leadership and support over the past two and half years. We are a stronger organisation for it.”
