Smith & Nephew plc (LON:SN, NYSE: SNN), the global medical technology company, has announced the following Board appointments.
The Company is pleased to announce that Jeremy (Jez) Maiden and Simon Lowth will be joining the Board as independent Non-Executive Directors. Jez joins today and will serve as a member of the Audit Committee and Remuneration Committee. Simon will join on 1 January 2024 and will serve as a member of the Audit Committee and Nomination & Governance Committee.
Additionally, Rupert Soames will, as planned, assume the role as Chair of the Board on 15 September, in succession to Roberto Quarta. Rupert has also been appointed as Chair of the Nomination & Governance Committee and will continue to serve on the Remuneration Committee.
Jez Maiden has extensive global financial experience across a diverse range of industries and sectors. He retired earlier this year as Group Finance Director at Croda International, the FTSE-100 global speciality chemicals company, and before that held similar roles at National Express Group and Northern Foods. He is currently Senior Independent Director at Travis Perkins plc and a Non-Executive Director and member of the Audit Committee at Intertek Group plc. Previously, he served as the Senior Independent Director at Synthomer and at both PZ Cussons and Synthomer he chaired the Audit Committee and served on the Remuneration Committee. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Simon Lowth has deep experience in finance, accounting, risk, corporate strategy as well as mergers and acquisitions. He currently serves as Group Chief Financial officer of BT Group, a role he has held since 2016 and previously performed the same role at BG Group, AstraZeneca and Scottish Power. Before joining Scottish Power, he led the Industrial Practice of McKinsey in the UK and has a background in engineering. He previously served as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Standard Chartered. He currently holds no additional external appointments.
Rupert Soames commented:
“We are delighted to be able to announce two such strong appointments to our Board. Simon and Jez bring deep executive and non-executive experience of serving on boards of companies which have had to address strategic and operational challenges across a number of different industries, including life-sciences and healthcare. They both have experience of supervising large operations in the US, Europe and Asia and of working in highly-regulated industries.
“Simon brings a wealth of expertise across a wide range of sectors, including within regulated industries. Having served as the CFO in four FTSE-100 companies, including AstraZeneca and, currently, BT, he has deep experience of capital markets, implementing strategic change, cost transformation and performance improvement programmes as well as understanding how technology can be used to transform a business, all of which will be very helpful to the Board.
“Jez brings more than 15 years of experience both as a FTSE Chief Financial Officer and as a Non-Executive Director in businesses involved in manufacturing, science and technology and will be a valuable addition to the Board and its Committees.
“Finally, I want to pay tribute to my predecessor Roberto Quarta who has delivered great service to the Company since taking over as Chair of Smith & Nephew in 2014. He has shown immense diligence and skill leading the Board and helping to navigate the company through challenging times; my colleagues on the Board and across the business are grateful for his leadership and commitment.”
No disclosure obligations arise under paragraphs (1) to (6) of LR 9.6.13 R of the UK Listing Authority’s Listing Rules in respect of the two new appointments. In line with current Non-Executive Directors, Jez Maiden and Simon Lowth will each be paid annual fees of £69,500, of which £6,500 will be paid in Smith+Nephew shares.
