Rentokil swoops for Mitchells and Butlers CFO

Rentokil Initial has announced that Jeremy Townsend will become their new chief financial officer and join their board as a director, on leaving his current role.

The business service company’s current CFO, Michael Murray, will leave the board on 31 March 2010.

Alan Brown, chief executive officer of Rentokil Initial, said: “[Jeremy] has highly relevant experience in managing the financial aspects of a business that operates across many sites with many brands. His expertise will be invaluable as we continue to pursue our operational excellence agenda.”

Townsend, 46, is currently finance director at Mitchells & Butlers, the pub chain brand of Harvester and O’Neill’s fame. He will stay there for up to six months until a successor is in place. A recruitment process has commenced.

He previously worked as group financial controller at Sainsbury’s and before then at Ernst & Young.

Both Rentokil and Mitchells and Butlers have been featured by Accountancy Age recently.

Rentokil has defended its right to use its auditor for internal-audit focused services, while Mitchells has faced a battle for control of the company which saw former Safeway FD Simon Laffin ousted from the board.

Further reading:

Rentokil defends right to make non-audit decisions

FRC urges caution on Rentokil-style audits

For more about Simon Laffin click here