Skillsmart appoints successor to Belinda Earl

Ian Cheshire, Kingfisher’s Chief Executive, International and Development has been appointed Chair of Skillsmart, the Sector Skills Council for Retail with effect from March 2004.

Ian started his career at the Boston Consulting Group in London, after which he had periods at Guinness plc. He progressed to Managing Director of Healthworks plc before becoming a partner at Pied a terre.

Ian then became a partner at Piper Trust, the retail development consultancy and venture capital firm, after which he went to Sears plc as Group Commercial Director on the main board. He then joined Kingfisher as Director of Strategy & Development where he handled the group role in strategy and acquisitions. From there, Ian progressed to Chief Executive, e-Kingfisher where he was responsible for all the group’s multi-channel operations, including B&Q, Comet, Screwfix and Darty. He was then appointed as an Executive Director of the Main Board in June 2000 and as a non-Executive Director on the board of Bradford & Bingley in 2003.

Ian takes over from Belinda Earl, whose leadership has been instrumental in establishing Skillsmart.