Tesco chair John Allan to give up amid inappropriate touching allegations
T
esco chair John Allan will step down after the company’s AGM subsequent month, the supermarket big revealed in the present day, after he was accused of inappropriate behaviour final week.
He had been head of Tesco’s board since 2015.
According to a report within the Guardian earlier this month, 4 women had come ahead to accuse Allan of inappropriate behaviour.
Allan “vigorously denied “ three of those claims, but admitted to the other, relating to comments made about a female staff member at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) while he was president of the lobby group. Tesco said Allann “unreservedly apologised” for these feedback.
One of the allegations was that he had touched the underside of a employees member on the Tesco AGM in 2022. Tesco stated it “instigated an extensive review of the allegation”, which “has not identified any evidence or complaints in relation to John”.
In his assertion upon leaving, which was not a part of Tesco’s personal announcement of his departure, Allan once more denied the claims made in opposition to him.
“It is with regret that I am having to prematurely stand down from my position as chair of Tesco Plc following the anonymous and unsubstantiated allegations made against me, as reported by the Guardian,” he stated. “These allegations are utterly baseless, as the internal procedures undertaken by Tesco prove.
“Tesco undertook an ‘extensive internal review’ which included inviting Tesco employees and ex-employees to come forward on an anonymous basis if they had concerns about my conduct.
“Tesco also conducted outreach to those who attended the meeting where the incident allegedly happened, and video footage of the meeting has also been reviewed. There is no evidence of any wrongdoing at that time or at any stage of my chairmanship at Tesco and I remain determined to prove my innocence.”
Senior unbiased director Byron Grote will grow to be interim chair. He stated: “John has made a valuable contribution to Tesco during his eight years as Chair. He has successfully led the board through the turnaround and Covid whilst helping to rebuild the business.
“While we have received no complaints about John’s conduct and made no findings of wrongdoing, these allegations risk becoming a distraction to Tesco. On behalf of the board, I thank him for his substantial contribution to the business. We are well advanced in our search for a new Chair and will make an announcement in due course.”
Tesco added that it had already begun succession planning as a result of Allan had been resulting from step down quickly anyway. Stewart Gilliland will lead the method to seek out his everlasting substitute.
Allan was paid £687,000 in charges plus an extra £8,000 for bills final yr, throughout which he attended 5 of Tesco’s six board conferences, plus a mixed 10 conferences of board subcommittees.
He was president of the CBI from 2018 till 2020. The CBI and its management have been topic to various allegations of misconduct in latest months. Its director common Tony Danker stepped apart in March due to these claims.
Tesco chairs dipped barely after the announcement, to 267.6p.