Tesco this morning announced that Alison Platt is to join its board of directors.
Platt is chief executive of Countrywide, the UK’s largest estate agency chain. She is to join Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, as a non-executive director on April 1.
Market watchers will be interested in the appointment: Tesco previously ran a property business, deemed by the then Office of Fair Trading to be an estate agency, while Platt has spoken of her ambition to launch some kind of online estate agent.
Tesco said this morning that Platt has “a wealth of relevant experience of the property sector and customer service delivery”.
Before joining Countrywide, Platt held a range of senior posts, including at Bupa.
She is a non-executive director of Cable & Wireless Communications plc, and was previously chair of ‘Opportunity Now’, which seeks to accelerate change for women in the workplace.
Platt was also a non-executive director of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office between 2005 and 2010.
She is to join Tesco’s Remuneration Committee.
Tesco also announced another new non-executive director appointment, that of Simon Patterson, managing director of technology investment firm Silver Lake Partners.
Comments (6)
What a missed opportunity that someone like Platt has a wealth of experience in customer service delivery but none of it rubbed off on Countrywide
You have to love it. Alison and a couple of her fellow directors bought shares in c/w and now see the value has dropped by a big margin. After Feb results which will be below expectation it will drop further. They have become a jack of all trades and master of none.
If they enter the online market it will just spread the risk but also the income will drop and unless they gain massive market share then adios countrywide. As i have said before, just like the beggar on the street. Diverse income from the big issue and a bit of guitar and begging, but still in the gutter. strange that Grenville and Alison both having connections with the FCO, ditto Grenville and Stockton at Belpenny…..How long was the application process
Has truly redefined the meaning of disruptive. Has she left CW a better place? Culture beats strategy every day and that is something that isn’t very clear at present.
She hasnt left CW. A NED is a part time job – a day or two per month.
The real story here is the interesting tie up between an organisation that’s had its hands bitten getting into the property industry before and an established property firm that wants to create a hybrid agency similar to an online firm in order to reduce the costs of being on the High Street.
How long until you see a new EA firm created between the two and launched in Tesco stores around the country?
“a wealth of relevant experience of the property sector”. How long has she been working in the property industry exactly?
DEFINITION of ‘Non–Executive Director‘ A member of a company’s board of directors who is not part of the executive team. A non–executive director (NED) typically does not engage in the day-to-day management of the organization, but is involved in policy making and planning exercises.
So she is going to get paid for having an opinion.
Can I have that job please?