UK's ASOS appoints new non-executive directors to its board

Laheij has more than 25 years of experience in international commercial and financial management, e-commerce, tech, consumer electronics, telco, and retail in B2C and B2B environments through her roles in Deloitte Australia, Sony Ericsson, Apple, and as chief financial officer (CFO) at Amazon Fashion Europe. She is currently Google’s senior finance director for Google EMEA, chair of the board of Google Payments Ltd, and audit chair of Vandemoortele. Laheij is based in London, UK, ASOS said in a press release.

Gutierrez has more than 30 years of experience in the retail and fashion industry initially as a strategy consultant at McKinsey before moving into leadership roles at international fashion businesses. At Inditex, he was director of distribution and operations, responsible for the global product distribution model of the group. He later served for six years as chief executive officer (CEO) and executive director of Hong Kong listed Esprit. Since 2018, Gutierrez is CEO and executive director of Spanish fashion brand Bimba y Lola.

Laheij will join the board today and serve as chair of the audit committee and as a member of the remuneration committee. Gutierrez will also be joining the board today and serve on the audit committee.

The company also announced that Patrick Kennedy has given notice of his decision to step down from the board with effect from April 5, 2023, to focus on other business activities. Mai Fyfield, who joined the board in November 2019, will succeed Patrick as senior independent director of the company.

Jorgen Lindemann, ASOS chairman, said: “On behalf of the board, I am delighted to welcome Natasja and Jose Manuel to ASOS whose addition will further broaden and deepen the expertise on the board. Natasja brings a wealth of highly relevant commercial and financial experience gained across several leading tech and growth businesses, including as CFO of Amazon Fashion Europe. Jose Manuel joins with extensive fashion and supply chain expertise. The board will greatly benefit from Natasja and Jose’s insight and oversight, and we look forward to working closely with them.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Patrick for the important contribution he has made to ASOS, in particular his contribution to ASOS’ move to the main market and his support during a period of management and board transition. We wish him well for the future.”

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)