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Ex-M&S boss Rose to chair new tech firm

By Rupert Steiner for the Daily Mail
Updated: 03:12 EDT, 29 March 2011

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Former Marks & Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose has added another role to the collection of appointments he has amassed since leaving the chain in January.

Speculation: Sir Stuart is rumoured to have sold a chunk of his stake in M&S

The retailer is to become non-executive chairman of a new technology firm backed by Carphone Warehouse founder Charles Dunstone and American electronics giant Best Buy.

While Rose has been busy seeking new berths there has also been speculation he sold a large chunk of his stake in Marks & Spencer, the Daily Mail can reveal.

The former M&S chief executive had been restricted from reducing his holding until the beginning of this month.

Sources claim he has been keen to diversify his holding while some in the sector suggest that reducing his stake by a significant amount would 'hardly be seen as a vote of confidence in the new regime'.

Rose would not disclose whether he had sold a chunk of stock, telling the Mail: 'I am still a shareholder of M&S.' When asked if he was still a substantial shareholder, he said: 'That depends on what you call substantial - I have more than five bobs worth.

'Now that I have left M&S I don't have to quantify my holding - for once privacy's on my side.' Rose said he is still looking for a new role to 'occupy most of my time'.

He joined the advisory board of Bridgepoint, the private equity firm behind sandwich chain Pret a Manger last year and is a member of the Office for National Statistics' panel that advises the Government.

Yesterday he joined the board of Mobile Money Network, a joint venture with Dunstone, Best Buy Europe, and Monitise - a firm that enables payments to be made through mobile telephones.

Lord Davies of Abersoch, the former boss of Standard Chartered is also joining the board as a non-executive director.

MMN plans to cash in on demand for mobile phonebased shopping and is in talks with 17 out of the top 20 UK high street retailers.

It is launching a service called Simply Tap. Consumers register personal details, such as credit card numbers and a preferred delivery address.

Then when they see something they want in store, online or in an advertisement, they type the product code into Simply Tap on their mobile, the sum is deducted and the item delivered using the stored details.

Rose believes this could be the future of shopping.

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