Shop Direct hires Sainsbury’s Jon Rudoe as retail and technology director
Shop Direct, the owner of Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com, has appointed Jon Rudoe to its executive board as retail and technology director.
Rudoe will join Shop Direct in April 2017 from Sainsbury’s, where he is currently digital and technology director. Prior to joining Sainsbury’s, he was head of retail at Ocado and earlier in his career worked in venture capital and for Bain & Co.
Reporting to chief executive Alex Baldock, Rudoe will oversee ecommerce, marketing, trading, commercial, business development, Very Exclusive and IT in his new role. His appointment will also see Shop Direct bring together its retail teams with IT for the first time.
Shop Direct said the new structure reflects its increasing focus on delivering a personalised customer experience underpinned by substantial investments in technology, particularly in the area of artificial intelligence.
Rudoe’s appointment to Shop Direct’s executive board follows on from those earlier this year of Phil Hackney and Sasha Berson as group operations director and group strategy and customer director respectively.
Alex Baldock, group chief executive of Shop Direct, said: “We’re delighted that Jon has chosen to join us at such a pivotal point in our transformation. With four consecutive years of sales and profit growth under our belts, his vast experience and expertise in digital, technology and trading will help us further accelerate our ambitious plans to become a world class digital retailer.
“In particular, bringing together our ecommerce and IT teams into one combined function with Jon at the helm will allow us to respond more quickly to our customers’ rapidly changing needs, and to be faster to market in identifying and implementing new tech-focused opportunities. It’s a bold and exciting move and one that will deliver massive benefits for us.”
