Rentokil swoops for Mitchells and Butlers CFO
Jeremy Townsend to leave Mitchells and Butlers for Rentokil when his replacement is found
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