RICHARD PENNYCOOK has been appointed as a non-executive director at Howden Joinery Group and will chair the company’s audit committee, taking over from Angus Cockburn.
The appointment comes a month after the former Morrisons finance director was drafted in to turnaround the finances at beleaguered retail and banking giant Co-operative Group as its interim finance director.
The Co-op had been demoted to junk status by rating agency Moody’s in a six-notch downgrade prior to Pennycook’s appointment, forcing the customer-owned business to deny that it would need a taxpayer-funded bailout to plug an estimated £1.8bn hole in its capital.
Pennycook, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award at Accountancy Age’s sister title Financial Director’s inaugural Business Finance Awards, is widely regarded as a turnaround specialist. During eight years at Morrisons, he achieved the seemingly impossible in winning back the City’s faith in the group following its failed acquisition of Safeway.