Marks & Spencer CEO Katie Bickerstaffe Quits After Just Two Years in the Post

Marks & Spencer’s co-CEO, Katie Bickerstaffe, is reportedly stepping down and moving to another company. Her departure comes just two years after she was assigned to the role.

Pursuing a New Career Path

According to The Times, the 56-year-old outgoing co-chief quit her job at Marks & Spencer to focus on a portfolio career. She is said to be in the line for a non-executive director role at Kingfisher, which owns B&Q, a home improvement and garden living retailer.

She will join Kingfisher, which is said to be struggling to regain sales as the decline in the housing market has worsened its previous strategic mistakes. Currently, she is also a non-executive director at the England and Wales Cricket Board and Barratt Developments, a leading housebuilder on the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index.

Leaving M&S Under Sole Leadership System

Sky News reported that Bickerstaffe will leave Marks & Spencer sometime this year. The exact date is not yet confirmed since the company has yet to make an official announcement about her exit.

As she gave up her co-CEO job, he left the company under the care of just one leader. Stuart Manchin will become the sole head of M&S, and it is not sure if the management will still look for someone to replace Bickerstaffe or move forward with just one CEO.

Insiders who shared the information said on Wednesday, March 6, that both Marks & Spencer and Kingfisher may release their statements to announce Bickerstaffe’s departure and appointment soon.

Finally, The Telegraph reported that before joining M&S, Katie Bickerstaffe managed Dixons Carphone’s operations in the U.K. and Ireland. This company has been rebranded as Currys now. She joined the company in 2018 as a non-executive director and became the chief transformation and strategy director in 2020.

Photo by: Hannu-Makarainen/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)