Marks & Spencer appoints Thinus Keeve to new retail director role

British department store Marks & Spencer has appointed Thinus Keeve to the newly created role of retail director. Keeve will take up the position from June 6, after which he will report to operations director Sacha Berendij.

Keeve is relocating to the UK from Australia, where he had served in a number of senior roles at various companies. He most recently held the position of chief executive officer and managing director of beauty company BWX, which he took up after serving for almost 13 years at Australian supermarket chain Coles Group.

His appointment was announced by Marks & Spencer’s chief executive officer, Steve Machin, in a post on LinkedIn. Here, Machin said that Keeve will be tasked with overseeing all of the retailer’s stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland, as well as holding responsibility for central store operations.

Machin added: “Like all new senior leaders, Thinus will spend his first month working in stores getting close to colleagues and close to customers. Following this, to ensure stores remain at the very heart of our decision-making across Marks & Spencer, in July he will also join our ExCo team.”

Upon Keeve joining, Berendij will continue to have overall accountability for retail, property, security and business continuity. The operations director is further responsible for accelerating the company’s store rotation programme, Machin noted.