Sharon White, Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, has today announced the appointment of a Chief Executive for the Partnership.
Nish Kankiwala has been a non-executive director of the John Lewis Partnership since April 2021. He is a former Chief Executive of Hovis and has held senior roles at Burger King and PepsiCo.
Nish will take up the new Chief Executive role on 27 March and remains a member of the Partnership Board.
Founded by John Spedan Lewis, the John Lewis Partnership is the UK’s biggest employee-owned business with nearly 80,000 Partners. It runs two much loved brands in Waitrose and John Lewis.
The Chairman will, as now, be fully accountable for all aspects of the Partnership’s performance, purpose and approach to pursuing a better way of doing business.
Sharon White said: “I’m delighted that Nish is to be Chief Executive. Since joining the Board in 2021, Nish has developed a deep understanding and appreciation of the Partnership model and has provided counsel on our transformation. He will be able to supercharge this in his new role while protecting the Partnership’s ethos.
“Nish and I will work closely to ensure the Partnership thrives for another century. The new structure allows me to focus on the preservation of the Partnership model and our distinctive character, on the strategy for the Partnership and our big commercial choices. Nish will draw on his significant transformation experience to drive performance and profitability day to day.”
Nish Kankiwala said: “It’s a great privilege to be appointed as Chief Executive following two rewarding years on the Partnership’s Board as a non-executive director. I am looking forward to playing an even fuller part in the transformation of the Partnership, to be a modern business loved by customers and treasured by our Partners.”
Notes to Editors
The Partnership’s written Constitution, which governs how the business is run, enables the Chairman to delegate responsibility under Rule 45(i).
Under the new structure, the Partnership’s Executive Directors will report to the Chief Executive while the Chief Executive will report to the Chairman.
The Chairman and Chief Executive roles are full time.
The Partnership will now move to appoint Nish’s successor as a non-executive director to the Partnership Board.
The Partnership has three decision making bodies: the democratically elected Partnership Council of around 60 Partners from around the business; the Partnership Board (which includes three elected Partners and three non-executive members); and the Chairman.
The Chairman appointed Nish Kankiwala to the Partnerships Board in April 2021. He brings a wealth of experience in consumer goods and retail having worked with some of the great global brands. Early part of his career, having started as a Graduate Trainee with Unilever, was spent in The Netherlands, France and then the US, where he held a number of commercial and operational roles. Subsequently, Nish joined PepsiCo and over 10 years ended up being President of the soft drinks business in Europe and Africa. Having spent over 25 years in global FMCG businesses, he then leveraged this experience and commenced his career within private equity structured companies. His career spanned consumer retail; being President of Burger King International, a fast moving retail business in over 60 countries and with nearly 4,000 restaurants and 120,000 colleagues that he led during its transformation and also as non-executive director of a large retail business in China. Nish continued his career within private equity businesses with a number of assignments as Chairman and CEO, associated with brands such as Jeyes, Tommee Tippee and Plum Baby Foods. He arrived at Hovis in 2014, initially as Chairman and then as CEO, where he has led the turnaround of a much loved and cherished business. Nish stepped down as CEO of Hovis last year.
