Tate & Lyle begins hunt for new board chair

Food ingredients firm Tate & Lyle announced on Monday that Dr Gerry Murphy would be stepping down as its chair after more than six years in the role.

It said Dr Murphy was leaving to take up the role of chair of the board at Tesco, and would continue as chair of Tate & Lyle until 1 September.

The board said it had launched a process to appoint a successor to Dr Murphy, led by senior independent director Paul Forman.

Tate & Lyle previously announced that Forman was scheduled to retire from the board at the annual general meeting on 27 July.

However, in light of Dr Murphy's decision, it said Forman would continue as a non-executive director and as the senior independent director to allow enough time to complete the search process.

The board said it would propose an additional resolution at the AGM to seek Forman's annual re-election as a non-executive director, in line with corporate governance guidelines.

Once the search for a new chair was complete, Forman would retire from the board, and Kim Nelson would assume the position of senior independent director as previously announced.

During the interim period, pending the appointment of a new chair, Tate & Lyle said Warren Tucker would serve as its interim chair from 1 September.

Tucket is currently the chair of the audit committee, and would continue to fulfil that role throughout the interim period.

“Gerry has made a significant contribution to Tate & Lyle over the last six years,” said chief executive officer Nick Hampton.

“He has led the board expertly through a major strategic transformation to reposition Tate & Lyle as a growth-focussed global speciality food and beverage solutions business meeting growing consumer demand for healthier and tastier food and drink.

“It has been a pleasure to work alongside him.”

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.