Arcadia COO stands down, Shepherd takes early retirement

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 3, 2019

Arcadia is hogging the news at the moment and just a day after claims and denials that Sir Philip Green is planning to break up the group, we heard that one of his top execs is leaving.

David Shepherd is group COO and is reported to be taking early retirement  at the age of 55 with no suggestion that Shepherd’s exit has any negative connotations.

That said, it will come as a blow to the company given the work he's done there. The executive has played a key role in the group during his quarter of a century at Arcadia having started there by working on the shopfloor on Saturdays at the Topshop flagship on Oxford Street. He led the turnaround of Topman when he was brand director there.

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His departure follows the loss earlier this year of another senior name when businesswoman/TV star Baroness Karren Brady quit her role as chairwoman of Arcadia’s holding company Taveta Investments.

And as the company ploughs ahead with its store closures and recovery programme, The Telegraph reported that “another resignation could also be on the cards.”

At the weekend it had been reported that Sir Philip Green and his CEO Ian Grabiner were planning to gradually work towards breaking up the group, although this was vehemently denied by the company.