New John Lewis boss given gong
Sharon White made a dame as former RBS chief Ross McEwan gets CBE
The new boss of John Lewis has been handed a gong in the New Year honours as she prepares to take over at the troubled department store chain.
Sharon White, 52, a former telecoms regulator with no retail experience, is set to start at John Lewis in early 2020.
She was appointed as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British empire in the Queen’s honours list for her public service, during her five-year tenure as chief executive of the TV and telecoms regulator Ofcom.
Other business figures honoured in the star-studded list, revealed late last night, include ross Mcewan, the former boss of royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and Jonathan Symonds, the chairman of Glaxosmithkline and deputy chairman of HSBC.
Mcewan, a New Zealand-born banker who is credited with returning taxpayer-owned RBS to profitability following the financial crisis, was honoured with a CBE for services to the financial sector. The 62year-old stepped down in April following five years at RBS, to take the reins at National Australia Bank. he was applauded for turning RBS back into an investable company following its £45bn taxpayer bailout in 2008.
But his recognition in the honours list will be controversial for many of the bank’s critics.
former small business customers of RBS’s scandal- hit Global restructuring Group (GRG) have previously lambasted Mcewan for failing to do enough to investigate alleged misconduct at the bank, even though GRG was disbanded soon after he took over. At this year’s AGM in April, former GRG customer Clive Murray accused the bank of being ‘ conflicted, evil, greedy and dishonest’.
Symonds, 60, who is also chairman of Genomics england, was credited for his services to UK life sciences and to finance. he will be knighted alongside Menelas Pangalos, an executive vice-president at rival firm Astrazeneca.
There was a pat on the back too for other regulators, including Andrea Coscelli, the chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority, and Jonson Cox, the boss of the water industry’s regulator Ofwat. Saker Nusseibeh, the boss of hermes Investment Management, was recognised for services to the financial sector, and Syl Saller, chief marketing officer of drinks firm Diageo, was awarded a CBE for services to business and equality in the workplace.