John Lewis finance chief Helen Weir to join Marks and Spencer on £590,000 salary
New Job: Helen Weir will work six months notice at John Lewis before joining M&S next year
Marks and Spencer has gone shopping at rival John Lewis for a replacement finance director, appointing Helen Weir who held the same position at Lloyds Banking Group up until 2011.
Britain’s biggest clothing retailer has taken four months to find a replacement for Alan Stewart, who announced in July he was leaving to join Tesco.
But it will be without Weir for a further six months while she works out her notice period.
M&S chief executive Marc Bolland said: ‘She is extremely well qualified, and brings a wealth of relevant financial, retail and consumer experience. We look forward to her joining the M&S team.’
Weir will receive a salary of £590,000, £10,000 more than Stewart, and she will receive a one-off payment of £188,500 to compensate her for the difference in her contractual pension.
She will also receive the standard 20 per cent Marks & Spencer staff discount.
Weir left Lloyds after being passed over for the top job by Antonio Horta-Osorio.
Prior to this she was at the centre of controversy after receiving a £330,000 relocation allowance in 2003, when she joined B&Q owner Kingfisher, for moving 40 miles down the road.
A John Lewis spokesman confirmed: ‘A process to select [Helen Weir’s] successor will begin immediately.’
Weir is a chartered accountant with a First in mathematics at Oxford.
She spent her early career at Unilever and was finance director of B&Q between 1995 and 2000, later elevated to finance director of parent Kingfisher until 2004.
She was group executive director of retail between 2008 to 2011 at Lloyds Banking Group. After that she joined the John Lewis Partnership.
Weir joined the board of brewer SAB Miller as a non-exec director in 2011 and was previously a non-exec at Royal Mail.
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