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Retail & Consumer

M&S boss to step down after six years in top job

Steve Rowe started at M&S aged 15 and worked his way up to the top role

Steve Rowe, Chief Executive of M&S is to step down in May 2022.(Image: M&S)

The chief executive of Marks & Spencer will step down after six years in the role and a career spent with the business.

Steve Rowe will end his time in charge on May 25, succeeded by a duo of Stuart Machin and Katie Bickerstaffe, who worked together as co-chief operating officers at the retail chain.

It marks the end of a slow journey to the top for Mr Rowe, who joined the business at 15 and rose through the ranks until eventually taking over as chief executive in 2016.

“It has been an enormous privilege to lead the business I love and have spent almost all my career working for,” Mr Rowe said.

“Leaving will be in many ways very difficult for me but I feel that after six hard years it is the right time to pass on the baton.”

He took charge at a time of turbulence for the company, and has led it through a transformation.

M&S said it is now “in very different shape” to when Mr Rowe took over six years ago.

It has, for instance, started selling food online through Ocado, closed more than 60 shops across the country and of course been forced to deal with the impact of a global pandemic and the lockdowns that came with it.