Home & DIY retail group Kingfisher has today announced the appointment of Vodafone‘s Chief Finance Officer, Karen Witts as Group Financial Director for the telecommunications company.
Witts will form part of the Group Executive structure at Kingfisher in October 2012.
A chartered accountant, she has been in her position at Vodafone since June 2010 heading up the division for Africa, Middle East, Asia and Asia Pacific.
Bringing with her considerable experience across international, financial and operational, in her time in the role of Chief Financial Officer at Vodafone, Witts‘s division accrued a sales worth of £13.9 billion.
Prior to her current position, Witts worked within the BT group for more than 10 years in the same role she is about to embark on at Kingfisher and was also Managing Director for operations within its Openreach company.
Kingfisher‘s restructuring is part of the ‘Creating the Leader‘ strategy which consists of eight steps in the business model which hope to improve the company in key areas.
Commenting on her new role, Witts said: “It is a great opportunity to be joining a growing, international retailer at such an interesting time in its development.
“I look forward to working with the Board and the Group Executive to help deliver Kingfisher‘s ‘Creating the Leader‘ plan.”
At Vodafone, Witts is also be Director of two Vodafone subsidiaries: Vodacom Group on the Johannesburg stock exchange and Safaricom, listed on the Narobi stock exchange.
Last week, B&Q announced a reshuffle of its board which is owned by Kingfisher and made two new appointments in Steve Robinson, who joined as Multichannel director and the promotion of Ebyru Sayilan as Commercial Director for Seasonal and Decorative.
Ian Cheshire, Kingfisher‘s Group CEO, feels his new Chief Finance Officer will strengthen the team dynamic.
“I am delighted that Karen is joining Kingfisher,” he commented.
“She has an outstanding financial and operational background at BT and Vodafone, where her international experience will be very helpful.
“Her appointment will complete the Group Executive team at Kingfisher. It is a strong, diverse senior management team, ready for the next phase of our growth plan under Kingfisher‘s ‘Creating the Leader‘ programme.”
