Royal Mail names four non-exec directors

Royal Mail Group has appointed four new non-executive directors, including Mike Hodgkinson, chief executive of BAA, and Richard Handover, CEO of WH Smith to its board.

The others are David Fish, non-executive director of Christian Salvesen, the European logistics business, and John Neill, chief executive of Unipart Group of Companies, the automotive parts business.

The Department of Trade and Industry said the company would benefit from the “impressive spread of commercial skills” the new members would bring. All four will be starting before the end of the year.

The move, together with the appointment this month of David Burden, from Qantas, as chief information officer and the forthcoming appointment of a chief executive and human resources director, means that seven new board members will be external.

The board shake-up is part of Royal Mail’s three-year restructuring designed to bring the company, which is losing Pounds 1.1m a day, back to profitability. Last week, Royal Mail Group reported half-year, pre-tax operating losses of Pounds 542m.

Mr Handover confounded critics by taking WH Smith back to profit and launching a successful online retailing venture. Mr Hodgkinson, who has been with BAA since 1992 and CEO since 1999, has overseen a restructuring of the company – which, like Royal Mail, is a regulated monopoly.

Postwatch, the consumer watchdog, said the men’s backgrounds were well suited to take on the task. “These are companies that have gone through a lot of change; they know how that’s done and that’s exactly what Royal Mail needs.”