Nish Kankiwala, CEO of the John Lewis Partnership (JLP), and the partnership’s board, have agreed that he will revert back to a non-executive role by March 2025, supporting chairman Jason Tarry and the board.
Reflecting the significant progression of the transformation, particularly over the last two years, and given the work on the operating model for the business, the role of CEO will not be directly replaced, and Jason will chair the executive team as well as the partnership board, states JLP.
Nish will continue to support the next phase of the partnership’s transformation as a non-executive board advisor, and promises to ensure a smooth transition with Jason.
Nish says: “The board asked me to move across from my non-executive director role to chief executive back in March 2023. This was in view of such a significant time for the partnership and to help accelerate this phase of the transformation.
"I was delighted to agree to take on the role for a two-year period during this time of pivotal change. Since then we’ve refreshed our partnership strategy to be rooted in retail, significantly improved our cash flows to enable record investment for growth, and returned the partnership to full-year profit.
“It’s been the privilege of my life to lead the partnership as CEO during this period of intense transformation. I am hugely proud of what we’ve achieved so far – thanks to the hard work and dedication of our partners. I have every confidence in Jason taking the partnership from strength to strength in the next phase of our transformation and am delighted to continue to support him and the board in an advisory capacity going forward.”
Jason adds: “I would like to thank Nish for the pivotal role he has played for the partnership, first as non-executive director of the board and recently as CEO. In the past two years he has been instrumental in accelerating the transformation of the partnership. It's a pleasure to work alongside Nish and I’m grateful that he has agreed to stay on as a non-executive board advisor and his ongoing support will be invaluable.”
Rita Clifton, deputy chairman and chair of the group's nomination committee, comments: “We created the CEO role at the beginning of 2023 because of the scale of the transformation and intense level of commercial focus needed in such unprecedented market circumstances. With his exceptional transformational experience and track record in consumer businesses, we asked Nish to move across from his non-executive director role to take on this new role of CEO for a concentrated period. We are deeply grateful that he agreed, and for all that he has delivered for the partnership in this particular phase of our transformation."
