Business Appointments: The saints go marching out

With the onset of summer the number of board changes has generally declined and this is also true for the drinks industry. The most notable board change in this area was the series of appointments and resignations that followed the boardroom coup at Southampton Leisure Holdings, parent of Southampton United.

These included the resignation of the chairman (Rupert Lowe) and joint MD (Andrew Cower). Lowe was formerly MD of DBMG Futures and Options Ltd and Cowen was previously employed by Morgan Grenfell. They were replaced by Kenneth Dulieu (chairman) and James Hone (CEO); Dulieu is also chairman of Capcon Holdings and a non-executive director of Vantis. Previously in his career he was a security advisor to Whitbread and Allied Breweries. Hone is a former CEO of Fulham Football Club and operations director at Celtic Football Club.

Last month’s issue discussed the upcoming departure of David Cook from the position of CEO of CHE Hotel Group. This month saw Michael Prager move from independent non-executive director to executive director of CHE, on June 19. Prager, 54, was appointed independent NED in November 2002; prior to that he served in various positions in, inter alia, Intercontinental Hotels, Six Continents, ITT Sheraton and Radisson Hotels.

There were two appointments to the board of Titan Move at the month end. Ian Franks joined the board as finance director having previously worked for Dixon Motors as financial controller and secretary as well as at Ernst & Young. In addition, Simon Dixon joined as a non-executive director. He is a past CEO of Dixon Motors and is a director of several private companies.

© db August 2006