Responsible Business
Find out more about our Matters Reserved for the Board and role descriptions.
Sophie Gasperment
Chair of the Responsible Business Committee, Non-Executive Director
Skills and experience:
Sophie brings to the Board expertise in strategy, brand and international retail markets as well as substantial experience in business transformation and digital capabilities, having held a number of senior leadership positions at L’Oréal, including managing director of L’Oréal UK & Ireland, and executive chair and global chief executive officer of The Body Shop and was non-executive director at Accor.
External appointments:
Sophie is a senior advisor at the Boston Consulting Group. Sophie has announced that she will be stepping down as non-executive director from the Accor board in May 2022. She is also a non-executive director of Givaudan S.A., the D’Ieteren group, and is the lead independent director on the board of Cimpress, a NASDAQ-listed technology company.
Appointment:
December 2018
Thierry Garnier
Chief Executive Officer
Skills and experience:
Thierry spent 20 years in senior roles at Carrefour, the French multi-national retailer. Before joining Kingfisher, he was a member of the Carrefour group executive committee and the chief executive officer (CEO) of Carrefour Asia. From 2003 to 2008, Thierry was the managing director of Supermarkets for Carrefour France. Following his success in this role he became CEO of Carrefour International and a member of the group executive committee in 2008, where he became responsible for operations in Asia, Latin America and various European countries. In 2016, Thierry was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur (France).
External appointments:
Thierry is a non-executive director of Tesco plc and a member of its remuneration Committee.
Appointed:
September 2019
Rakhi Goss-Custard
Non-Executive Director
Skills and experience:
Rakhi is an experienced non-executive director, with expertise in digital retailing, strategy, analytics, and operational execution. She spent 12 years at Amazon in various senior leadership positions running many of Amazon’s key categories, including high growth, mature and digital categories, in addition to being responsible for pricing across the UK. Prior to joining Amazon, Rakhi held roles at TomTom and in management consultancy in the United States. She was previously a non-executive director of Intu Properties plc.
External appointments:
Rakhi is currently a non-executive director of Schroders plc, Rightmove plc, and Tim Holdco Limited.
Appointed:
February 2016
Kate Seljeflot
Chief People Officer
Expertise and experience:
Kate is an experienced professional with a breadth of retail and transformation skills, built on an international career in human resources. Kate joined Kingfisher from Costa Coffee, the coffeehouse chain owned by Coca-Cola, where she was Chief People Officer. Kate led Costa’s global people strategy, with a focus on building the right organisation and capabilities to drive change and support the business’ growth plans. Before this she also held senior HR roles at Diageo and Shell.
Appointed:
February 2020
Henri Solere
Chief Offer and Sourcing Officer
Experience and expertise:
Henri has been at Kingfisher for 12 years, during which he has held several senior leadership positions across the business, starting as Commercial Director for Castorama. More recently, within Kingfisher, he played a key role in establishing the Offer and Supply Chain division, developing a successful offer on Bathroom and Storage, with great products that demonstrated the sales potential of unique design and affordable prices. In his current role as Chief Offer and Sourcing Officer, Herni is leading the offer strategy, with a strong focus on own and exclusive brands reaching customer expectations and providing strong differentiation for Kingfisher.
Appointed:
2018 (joined 2007)
John Mewett
CEO Screwfix
Experience and Expertise:
John is an experienced retailer who has been instrumental in Screwfix’s growth, having joined 11
years ago as marketing and ecommerce director. John has also served as Group Digital Director at Kingfisher, helping to implement Screwfix’s technology expertise across the business and retail brands, before returning to Screwfix as CEO in October 2018. Prior to his time at Kingfisher, John worked for Dixons Carphone across various roles, including operations, commercial and marketing, for more than 20 years.
Appointed:
2018 (joined 2008)
