Philips will take up his position at the supermarket chain in March, joining from Loblaw Companies, which is Canada's largest food distributor.
At Loblaw, which has over 1,000 stores across Canada, Philips held the position of chief operating officer since January 2007. The chain, which has an annual turnover of £18bn, also sells general merchandise, pharmacy goods and financial products and services.
Prior to his role at Loblaw, Philips was chief executive of Irish department store group, Brown Thomas. Between 1998 and 2005 he worked for Wal-Mart's international division in a range of commercial positions, rising to chief operating officer in Germany.
Philips began his career as a store manager in New Zealand with Jardine Matheson and was later regional director of the company's Spanish supermarket division.
Marc Bolland was confirmed as the new chief executive at M&S in November 2009.
Bolland is widely credited with turning Morrisons around since his arrival from Heineken in 2006. At the time the supermarket was struggling following its acquisition of Safeway in 2004.
According to TNS Worldpanel in the 12 weeks to 27 December 2009 Morrisons increased sales by 10.3%, which was almost twice the market rate at the time.
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