London, 2017-Jan-27 — /EPR Retail News/ — The John Lewis Partnership today (26 January 2017) announces the appointment of Clayton Hirst to the role of Group Head of Corporate Affairs, John Lewis Partnership. Clayton will take up the position on 24 April 2017 joining from Virgin Media, where he has served as Director of External Communications since 2015.
Clayton has two decades’ experience in communications, media and public policy. Prior to joining Virgin Media, he spent 10 years at the regulator Ofcom in a number of roles before becoming its Director of Communications in 2010. Clayton’s early career was in journalism, working as a reporter and editor on a number of national publications, latterly the Independent on Sunday, where he was Deputy Business Editor.
Simon Fowler, Director of Communications, John Lewis Partnership said: ‘Clayton joins us to head up our Corporate Affairs team at a time of huge significance for the Partnership as we help the business develop its thinking on the key priorities emerging from the Government’s Industrial Strategy. This includes the UK’s direction post-Brexit as well as the issues facing the Partnership from the pressures we’ve called out affecting society, retail and the workplace.’
Clayton said: ‘I am delighted to be joining the Partnership at such a critical time – with the structural changes taking place in the retail sector and the enormous shifts in public policy resulting from Brexit. I look forward to working for the John Lewis Partnership, one of the UK’s most respected retailers, brands and employee-owned businesses.’
Notes to editors
The John Lewis Partnership – operates 48 John Lewis shops across the UK, johnlewis.com, 352 Waitrose shops, waitrose.com and business to business contracts in the UK and abroad. The business has annual gross sales of over £11bn. It is the UK’s largest example of an employee-owned business where all 88,900 staff are Partners in the business.
Enquiries
For further information please contact:
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Simon Rigby
Jos Bieneman
Telephone: 020 7638 9571
John Lewis Partnership
Simon Fowler
Director of Communications
Telephone: 07710 398460
Katie Robson
Senior Manager, Group External Communications
Telephone: 07764 675608
Source: John Lewis Partnership