Tate & Lyle names Blackstone exec Gerry Murphy chairman designate

Tate & Lyle has appointed Gerry Murphy as chairman designate with effect from 1 April, when Peter Gershon retires.

Murphy is chairman of The Blackstone Group’s principal European entity. Previously, he worked in the food and drinks sector, primarily with Grand Metropolitan – now Diageo – and Greencore Group, where he was chief executive officer before becoming CEO of Exel, Carlton Communications and most recently Kingfisher.

He is a non-executive director of British American Tobacco and Intertrust NV and has held non-executive directorships in a number of London-listed companies including Merlin Entertainments from 2013 to 2015.

Peter Gerson said: “I am honoured to succeed Sir Peter as chairman of Tate & Lyle and I am very excited about working with Javed Ahmed, the board and the leadership team to help deliver the company’s growth agenda. Having started my career in the food industry, joining Tate & Lyle feels like coming home.”

Shore Capital said Murphy is “something of a sage of many boardrooms”.

“Tate's is a distinctive organisation, one of the companies that we cover with the worst visibility for financial outcome we know going back many years. Accordingly, whilst we welcome Dr. Murphy's appointment and wish him well, we doubt that the Tate forecast fog will be lifted,” the brokerage.

At 0815 GMT, the shares were down 0.6% to 677.50p.