Asos appoints Natasja Laheij and Jose Manuel Martinéz Gutiérrez to the board

Asos plc has further strengthened its board with the appointments of Natasja Laheij and Jose Manuel Martinéz Gutiérrez as independent non-executive directors.

The company added that both Laheij and Martinéz Gutiérrez will join the board on April 11, 2023. Laheij will serve as chair of the audit committee and as a member of the remuneration committee and Martinéz Gutiérrez will serve on the audit committee.

The company also announced that Patrick Kennedy has decided to step down from the board with effect from April 5, 2023 to focus on other business activities. Mai Fyfield, who joined the board in November 2019, will succeed Kennedy as senior independent director of the company.

Commenting on the new board appointments, Jørgen Lindemann, Asos chairman, said: "Natasja brings a wealth of highly relevant commercial and financial experience gained across several leading tech and growth businesses, including as CFO of Amazon Fashion Europe. Jose Manuel joins with extensive fashion and supply chain expertise. The board will greatly benefit from Natasja and Jose's insight and oversight, and we look forward to working closely with them."

"I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Patrick for the important contribution he has made to Asos, in particular his contribution to Asos' move to the Main Market and his support during a period of management and board transition."

Laheij, Asos said in a statement, has more than 25 years of experience in international commercial & financial management, e-commerce, tech, consumer electronics, telco and retail in B2C and B2B environments through her roles in Deloitte Australia, Sony Ericsson, Apple and as CFO Amazon Fashion Europe. She is currently senior finance director for Google EMEA, chair of the board of Google Payments Ltd. and audit chair of Vandemoortele. She is based in London, UK.

Jose Manuel Martinéz Gutiérrez has more than 30 years of experience in the retail and fashion industry initially as a strategy consultant at McKinsey before moving into leadership roles at international fashion businesses. At Inditex, he was director of distribution and operations, responsible for the global product distribution model of the group. He later served for six years as CEO and executive director of Hong Kong listed Esprit. Since 2018, Martinéz Gutiérrez has been CEO and executive director of Spanish fashion brand Bimba y Lola.