Marks & Spencer multi-channel director departs

Marks & Spencer has today announced that Laura Wade-Gery, its executive director of multi-channel, will not return from maternity leave at the end of September and has stood down from its board with immediate effect.

Wade-Grey joined M&S from grocer Tesco in 2011, having been lured to the business by former chief executive Marc Bolland, and oversaw the overhaul of its e-commerce operations. She has been away from the business for a year on maternity leave and said in a statement that the period "has seen some significant changes in both my personal life and in the business. I concluded that the time was right to move on from M&S."

Chief executive Steve Rowe, who took over from Bolland after he left at the start of the year, said Wade-Gery had been a "great colleague". "I am grateful to Laura for her contribution and she leaves M&S with my personal thanks and best wishes," he said.

The company said Wade-Gery would receive remuneration terms "in line with the key provisions for contract termination as per Marks and Spencer Group plc’s Executive Remuneration Policy approved by shareholders in 2014". She will receive monthly payments of up to a maximum of eight months’ salary and benefits, subject to mitigation.

While Wade-Gery has been away, Bolland stood down for the business having failed to turn around the fortunes of its fashion business, which is considered to be its number one priority. Rowe, a Marks & Spencer life-long employee, stepped up to take the top job but has been hampered by particularly difficult trading conditions such as pre-Brexit vote jitters, a late-arriving summer and a general downturn in fashion sales on the high street.

The company announced in July that its Q1 clothing sales had slumped 9% (analysts had been expecting about 6%) and it recently revealed that it would be making 500 redundancies at its Paddington HQ, many of which are expected to be contractors.

Wade-Gery has been one of the most high profile women on the British high street. She was e-commerce director at Tesco, having joined the business in 1997, and before that worked at Gemini Consulting and Kleinwort Benson. Her decision not to return is not entirely surprising as she initially intended to take only four months' maternity leave but revealed in December that she intended to take the full year.