Halfords’ chairman Dennis Millard, who took up his position three years ago, was this morning appointed executive chairman as he takes over the running of the business on a temporarily basis after David Wild exited this morning.

Millard will certainly have a lot on his plate. Not least because Halfords has today posted a disappointing first quarter, resulting in a profit warning, but also because of his large portfolio of executive and non executive roles.

In addition to his position at Halfords, Millard is chairman of Smiths News, a newspaper and magazine wholesaler which was once a part of the WHSmith group. He is also a non-executive director on the board of Debenhams.

On top of this he holds the position of non-executive senior independent director at both electronics firm Premier Farnell and business technology provider Xchanging.

When Millard joined Halfords in 2009, Wild had been with the company for a year. Across that time, Halfords has worked hard to become more relevant to its customers, and importantly acquired Autocentres in 2010, which currently stands as the strongest part of the business.

Millard retired from his role as finance director at telecoms group Cookson Group in 2005 at the age of 55 after almost 10 years at the company. He had worked at the business when it made its doomed attempt to reinvent itself as an electronics equipment group.

Before returning to business life, Millard opted to relax a little. A keen surfer, it was reported at the time that he planned to enjoy his retirement by experiencing the waves in Indonesia, South Africa and California to get away from the board room and enjoy his spare time.

His thirst for thrill-seeking will certainly put him in good stead to take on the challenge of heading up Halfords and the job of searching for Wild’s replacement.