Ocado on Thursday said that its chair Rick Haythornthwaite would step down from his role in 2025 after four years in the role.

Haythornthwaite, a business veteran who has led several companies including being the chairman of MasterCard and the Creative Industries Federation, said that he would be not be standing for re-election at Ocado’s annual general meeting in April 2025 due to his “increasing commitment” at banking group NatWest.

Haythornthwaite was selected as chairman of NatWest in September 2023, to take up his post in January 2024, though this was delayed to this month.

In a statement, Haythornthwaite said: "Since the announcement of my appointment as group chair of NatWest I have given extensive thought to my workload ... it has become evident that pressure on my time is likely to increase over the medium term.”

He added that he had made his intention to step down public a year in advance in order to provide Ocado with time to identify a successor.

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