Ted Baker hires ex-Sports Direct CFO Kempster as director

(Sharecast News) - Ted Baker has hired Sports Direct's former finance chief as a non-executive board member and replaced its senior independent director in a governance revamp at the crisis-hit fashion brand.
Jon Kempster has joined Ted Baker's board with immediate effect. He spent two years as Sports Direct's chief financial officer before leaving in September.

He left Sports Direct after chaos surrounding the company's annual results, which were delayed several times before it revealed a potential €674m (£569m) Belgian tax bill. Frasers said on 16 December no unpaid Belgian VAT had been found.

Before joining Sports Direct, now renamed Frasers, Kempster had spells as the CFO at Wincanton, Delta and other companies. He has been a non-executive director at Redcentric for almost three years.

Ted Baker also said Ron Steward had left the board after nine years. He has been replaced as senior independent director, with responsibility for listening to investor views, by Helena Feltham, who joined the board in May.

Ted Baker was plunged into crisis this year when its founder and chief executive Ray Kelvin was forced to quit in March over allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards employees. The company then issued a string of profit warnings culminating in the resignations of Kelvin's replacement Lindsay Page and chairman David Bernstein in December.

Page, Kelvin's long-time ally at the company, was replaced on an interim basis by finance director Rachel Osborne and Sharon Baylay, who joined the board in 2018, became acting chair.

Baylay said: "Jon has a wealth of relevant public company experience in multinational organisations across a range of sectors. In particular, he has a strong track record in the areas of corporate development, strategy implementation, and operational performance transformation.

"I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of everyone at the group to thank Ron Stewart for his valued input throughout his time on the Ted Baker board."

Ted Baker said Feltham had joined the audit and risk and remuneration committees and would chair the nomination committee. Baylay has joined the nomination committee.