New man at the top

Ian Cheshire has today been named as Kingfisher’s new group chief executive. He will take over the position from Gerry Murphy, who announced his resignation on 1 November after five years at the helm, on 28 January 2008. Ian Cheshire, who joined Kingfisher in 1998, has been chief executive of B&Q in the United Kingdom, the group’s biggest individual company, since 2005. He began his career as group strategy director, before joining the board in 2000 as chief executive of the e-commerce division. In 2002 he took over responsibility for all business outside the UK and France as CEO international and development.