Just eighteen months into her job, the chief executive officer of the British department store chain Matalan has announced her departure. A news release confirming Jo Whitfield’s resignation said that she had chosen to leave in order to “pursue a portfolio career.”
Whitfield was praised with “re-establishing its value credentials” and “rebuilding the company’s top team” while she was employed at Matalan. Karl-Heinz Holland, the chair of Matalan, will assume the function of executive chair in her absence and oversee it until a successor is chosen; this process is now in progress.
Thanking Whitfield for her work at the company, Holland said that her team had “stabilised the business” and “put customers and colleagues” back at the centre of the company’s operations.
Whitfield described her 18 months at Matalan as a “fast-paced transformational 18 months” in which the company’s foundations were rebuilt against a “very challenging backdrop.”