Ex-Travis Perkins FD joins Pendragon as audit committee chair

THE LONG-STANDING FINANCE DIRECTOR of Travis Perkins is to join Pendragon as an independent non-executive director and chair of the company’s audit committee.

Paul Hampden Smith, who retired from the builders’ merchant in February after 17 years as finance director, replaces Mel Egglenton at Pendragon, who was appointed as chairman designate of motor retail group earlier this year.

Hampden Smith will join Pendragon on 23 May – the day after the company’s annual general meeting – and is staying on at Travis Perkins until September as part of the handover process to incoming finance director Tony Buffin.

Egglenton said: [Hamden Smith’s] established credentials as a chairman of audit committees make him a fitting successor in that role for Pendragon and his finance and multi-site distribution experience will bring further breadth and depth to our board.”

KPMG’s work as auditor of Pendragon is currently being scrutinised by the FRC as part of an investigation into whether the firm was independent when it audited Pendragon’s 2010 and 2011 financial statements.

It is understood the investigation relates to the appointment Egglenton, a former KPMG partner, to Pendragon as a non-executive director in 2010, having left KPMG nine months earlier.

KPMG, which has audited the car dealer since 1997, said that, in relation to the 2010 and 2011 Pendragon audits, it remains of the view that its independence “was maintained”.