Amanda James joins FTSE female top execs after Next promotion
NEXT has promoted the finance boss of its retail division Amanda James to group finance director after announcing yesterday that David Keens is to stand down.
Keens, who has held the post for 23 years and who has been at Next for 28 years overall, will retire from the group shortly after its full-year results in March next year.
James will be the fourth woman on Next’s board, joining group sales and marketing director Jane Shields and non-executive directors Christine Cross and Caroline Goodall.
The announcement comes as Marks & Spencer’s full-year results today are expected to confirm that Next has overtaken the high street giant for the first time.
M&S is expected to report pre-tax profits of £615m compared with the £695.2m profits reported by Next in March.