// Marks & Spencer co-chief executive Katie Bickerstaffe reshapes her senior team to accelerate the retailer’s growth plans
// Bank and services director Kirsty Ward will head up the new M&S Connect team as director
M&S co-chief executive Katie Bickerstaffe has reshaped her senior team as the retailer moves into the next phase of its digital strategy.
M&S Bank and Services director Kirsty Ward will lead the new M&S Connect division, which aims to build a “single digital identity” for its customers to enable the retailer to better understand its customers.
This will help to get customers to “shop with us more often, spend more with us when they do and stay in our ‘ecosystem’”, Bickerstaffe told M&S staff today, in a memo seen by Retail Week.
The “reset” will see M&S.com director Stephen Langford become director of online and omnichannel while chief digital and data director Jeremy Pee is named the chief digital and technology director.
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Bickerstaffe, who became co-chief executive of M&S last year, added the new emphasis will be on building and maintaining the membership of the Sparks loyalty scheme and driving traffic to the M&S app.
The Sparks team, along with the bank and services team, will move across to the new M&S Connect team.
The customer growth team, which is focused on digital and personalised marketing, will merge with the dot-come team to “create the new online and omnichannel function”.
Changes to the digital team will simplify operations and bring together the retailer’s data scientists, technology team and digital product colleagues, Bickerstaffe said.
“This brings together the capabilities and skills we need to become a world-class omnichannel retailer with data at the heart.”
“What has got us here won’t get us there, we have to build on what we have done and keep making progress at pace,” she said.
“We are making some organisational changes to accelerate our plans.”
Chief technology officer Mike Yorweth will leave the retailer at the end of the financial year.
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