// Ted Baker cuts down exec team to reshape leadership strategy
// The retailer has axed 4 board members
// The changes come after Ted Baker was embroiled in controversy last year
Ted Baker has made changes to its executive team in a bid to streamline its senior management structure.
The fashion retailer’s boss Rachel Osborne has cut down the executive board from 13 to nine members to reshape her leadership team, Retail Week reported.
Osborne joined Ted Baker from Debenhams as finance boss last September. She was drafted in as acting chief executive in a bid to revitalise the business.
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Category director Rebecca Rodden, special projects director Mat Ashby and production director Donald Browne are due to resign by the end of April.
Rodden and Browne have been in the business for 21 and 29 years respectively.
Meanwhile, business process director Steven Rickards is also set to exit, but will stay on until the summer to support Ted Baker’s turnaround strategy.
The changes come after Ted Baker was embroiled in controversy last year, concerning founder Ray Kelvin.
Former boss Kelvin stepped down last March amid allegations of misconduct, including “forced hugging”.
His replacement, Lindsay Page, and chairman David Bernstein both left the business in December after it issued its fourth profit warning in the space of a year.
Since her appointment, Osborne has appointed Jennifer Roebuck to the newly created role of chief customer officer last month, and also drafted in US fashion designer Michael Bastian as interim creative officer.
Ted Baker said in December it expects a full-year profit of between £5 million and £10 million after admitting that the past year had “undoubtedly been the most challenging in our history”.
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