Meanwhile, Sports Direct International has lost another non-executive director with the resignation of Chris Bulmer, who joined the board at the time of the company’s IPO earlier this year. She said she was leaving because of her concerns about poor corporate governance at SDI, which has infuriated many investors.
A former human resources director of Brambles and Whitbread, Bulmer is thought to have been brought on board by David Richardson, SDI’s former non-executive chairman. He abruptly stepped down in May, amid heavy criticism over the opaque attitude of SDI’s management and its apparent lack of concern about the huge drop in SDI’s share price since it was floated in February.
While SDI has yet to find a permanent replacement for Richardson, Simon Bentley continues to head up the board as acting non-executive chairman. Some British news reports suggested that Bulmer had quit because she refused to back Bentley’s appointment as a chief executive, which he denied.
On the other hand, the company has appointed Dave Singleton, former head of Reebok in Europe, to join as a non-executive director. Singleton left Reebok last April after 25 years at the company, the last four of them as a senior vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He departed after the integration between Reebok and Adidas. Curiously, Singleton had been very critical of Mike Ashley’s price-slashing policies while he was at Reebok.
While Singleton brings vast experience on the supply side, SDI has also appointed an expert in retail real estate to beef up its non-executive board. Malcolm Dalgleish is the head of retail in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region for CB Richard Ellis, which describes itself as the global leader in real estate services.
