John Lewis Partnership chairman to step down in 2020

The John Lewis Partnership has announced its chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield is to step down from his role in 2020.

The parent company of John Lewis and Waitrose, the John Lewis Partnership is now the largest employee-owned business in the UK with 83,000 employees who are all partners in the business.

Mayfield is only the Partnership’s fifth chairman during its nearly 100 year history. The John Lewis Partnership said the new chairman will be announced in the second half of 2019.

The company also said its process for selecting a new chairman had been “extensively modernised” and will be overseen by a nominations committee, comprising of two elected directors, two independent non-executive directors and the chairman.

The committee is to be chaired by Keith Williams, the deputy chairman, and supported by independent recruitment consultants, who will be considering both internal and external candidates.

Mayfield, commenting on the announcement, said: “Although my departure is still a considerable way off, the appointment of my successor is a key responsibility. It is for this reason I have decided to lay out the timetable now to enable an open and thorough process to select the next chairman of the Partnership.”

The news comes only a couple of months after the John Lewis Partnership reported a 99% slump in its underlying profits to £1.2m in the first six months of the year.