Business mogul Karren Brady is set to take over as chair of Sir Philip Green’s retail empire, after Lord Anthony Grabiner stepped down from the position in the wake of the BHS scandal.
Grabiner, who had been chair of Green’s company Taveta for 15 years, after MPs found he had been the “apogee of weak corporate governance” and had been “content to provide a veneer of establishment credibility to the group while happily disengaging from the key decisions he had a responsibility to scrutinise”.
Green’s company hit headlines after the collapse of popular British department store BHS, after it was found that it sold BHS for £1 to a group headed by former bankrupt Dominic Chappell. BHS then promptly fell into administration, causing the loss of 11,000 jobs and leaving a multimillion pound pension deficit.
Green said in a statement:
“On behalf of the Taveta board, I would like to thank Lord Grabiner for his 15 years’ service and to wish him well for the future. I am delighted to announce that Baroness Karren Brady will be appointed as non-executive chairman. Baroness Brady joined the Taveta board as a non-executive director in September 2010 and will assume the role immediately.”
Baroness Karren Brady received a CBE for her services to business and entrepreneurship, after becoming the youngest ever boss of a FTSE-listed company at age 23. She joined the House of Lords in 2014 and has also been a judge on Sir Alan Sugar’s BBC programme, The Apprentice.