Marks and Spencer (M&S) has announced that Alison Dolan will join the board as chief financial officer.

Dolan joins the retailer from property portal Rightmove, where she has worked as chief financial officer since 2020.

Prior to this, she was chief strategy officer at News UK. Dolan also worked for British Sky Broadcasting for 15 years where she held a variety of roles including deputy managing director.

She will take over from Jeremy Townsend, who is interim chief financial officer and will remain in the role until May 2025.

The retailer said it would announce a start date for Dolan in due course.

“I am delighted to welcome Alison to M&S as our chief financial officer,” said Stuart Machin, chief executive officer at M&S. “We are fortunate to attract somebody of Alison’s calibre who will be a fantastic addition to the leadership team and with so much experience in fast paced, digitally led businesses, will help us in this next phase of transforming M&S.”

Earlier this month M&S announced a 58 per cent increase in profits thanks to its Reshape for Growth strategy.

The company said that over the past two years, the strategy has delivered growth in sales, market share, margins, return on capital and free cash flow.

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