Customer director, Waitrose & Partners
George, who joined the supermarket in 2017 from the Post Office, did well from a restructure earlier this year at John Lewis Partnership, with the ex-Waitrose customer director handed responsibility for marketing across both brands, while colleagues, including his erstwhile John Lewis & Partners counterpart Craig Inglis, departed.
Since then, however, new chairman Sharon White has more or less reversed the changes to the business introduced by her predecessor Charlie Mayfield, and George has reverted to his former role. Meanwhile former Dixons Carphone chief customer and commercial officer聽Claire Pointon, who joined JLP in February as omni channel director, has been handed the equivalent role at John Lewis.
George鈥檚 highlights of the past year include the Christmas campaign 鈥淓dgar the dragon鈥, which he says 鈥渞eally resonated with our customers鈥, and the product-focused Waitrose 鈥淭aste鈥 push. With Waitrose鈥檚 Ocado relationship having ended last month, growing the brand鈥檚 own online platform is a priority.