Tesco beefs up board with Compass boss and ex-IKEA chief

6th Oct 2014 07:02

The boss of catering group Compass and the former chief of Swedish furniture giant IKEA are to join the board of Tesco, the UK supermarket announced on Monday morning.Richard Cousins, who has been the group chief executive officer (CEO) of Compass since 2006, "will bring valuable UK and international corporate experience", Tesco said.Cousins has also held non-executive positions on the boards of Reckitt Benckiser, HBOS and Bank of Scotland over recent years.He will be joined by new incomer Mikael Ohlsson, who was until September 2013 the CEO and president of IKEA Group.Ohlsson, who is also a director of Volvo, Ikano and Lindengruppen, "will bring valuable retail and international experience", Tesco said.Both Cousins and Ohlsson will take up their new positions as non-executive directors of Tesco on 1 November."I am delighted to welcome Mikael and Richard to the board and know that their broad skills and experience will be a real asset to the company in the coming years," said Tesco's chairman Richard Broadbent."Mikael and Richard have been updated on and are wholly supportive of the steps being taken by the new management team to rebuild trust in Tesco and to focus all the resources of the business to deliver value to our customers."In a research note sent to clients on Monday morning Clive Black, Head of Research at Shore Capital, pointed out that non-executive directors "rarely put pennies in the tills" although in this case he hopes it represents the return of more effective governance at the grocer."Accordingly, a light beam of good news from Tesco in a sea of darkness," Black adds, while reiterating that the broker currently has a 'hold' recommendation on the shares of the supermarket operator.