The company’s group sales, marketing and HR director joined the retailer as a sales assistant in 1985. She will retire from the company and step down from its executive board in May.
Next’s online customer service director Matt Barnes is due to take over most of Shields’ operational remit, including ecommerce, brand marketing, retail stores and online customer services. The retailer added that he “will not be joining the board at this stage”.
Shields was appointed to the board in 2013 after becoming group sales and marketing director three years earlier. The announcement said she would step down from the board effective from May 21 of this year.
Next also announced that Annette Court and Jeni Mundy would become non-executive directors as of March 1 and April 1, 2026, respectively. Senior independent director and chairman of the audit committee Jonathan Bewes will also be retiring from the board in May this year.
Court has been chair of WHSmith plc since 2022 and a senior independent director of Sage Group since 2024, having joined that board in 2019. She was previously chief executive at Direct Line Group, with her tenure ending in 2006.
Mundy was formerly a non-executive director and chair of the corporate responsibility committee at Auto Trader from 2016 to 2025. She held corporate roles at Visa and Vodafone.
Both will become members of Next’s nomination, audit and remuneration committees.
Current non-executive director Soumen Das will take on the role of audit committee chair in May.
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