AO World promotes Mark Higgins to chief financial officer

Online domestic appliances retailer AO World has appointed Mark Higgins as chief financial officer and executive director with effect from 1 August.

Steve Caunce, who has held the combined role of chief operating officer and CFO, will remain on the board as COO.

Higgins, who is a qualified accountant, joined the company in 2011 as finance director from Enterprise Managed Services where he was the head of finance. Prior to that, he held various roles within the Caudwell Group.

AO’s chairman Richard Rose said: “Following a thorough selection process, the board has determined that Mark has the relevant skills and experience for the role of CFO and his existing relationships with stakeholders and knowledge of the business will help strengthen the effectiveness of the board.”

Independent retail analyst Nick Bubb noted that Caunce's "job has become increasingly onerous, as AO spreads into Europe etc, so he is now going to work full-time on that".

More acerbically, he added: "Some people will shudder to see that Mark Higgins used to work at the Caudwell Group, the notoriously aggressive mobile telecoms business that used to own Phones4U."

At 09:46, shares in AO were down 0.4% at 124.50p.