Kingfisher, the international home improvement company, today announces the appointment of Bernard Bot as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Bot will take up the role on 21 October 2019 and will be appointed to the Board of Directors on that date. He will also become a member of the Group Executive team.

Bot joins most recently from Travelport Worldwide, a global technology platform for the travel industry that was NYSE-listed until June 2019. As Travelport’s CFO, Bot was responsible for finance, strategy, transformation and investor relations. He was integral to the repositioning of the company from a traditional travel content distributor to a digital-led commerce platform. Prior to that, Bot was CFO of Aer Lingus where he was responsible for all aspects of finance, IT and procurement. Between 2005 and 2014, Bot held various positions at express delivery company TNT Express NV, including Group CFO and Interim Group CEO. Between 1992 and 2005, he worked at McKinsey & Company where he rose to become a Partner and leader of McKinsey’s worldwide Post and Logistics group. Bernard is a non-executive director of A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S and a member of its Audit Committee.

Bot has significant experience in large-scale transformation programmes, logistics and supply chain management, technology and digital services. He is a seasoned CFO, having held this role at companies listed in the US, UK, Ireland and the Netherlands and has worked at international businesses throughout his career. Bot is a Dutch national, who also speaks fluent English and French, and will be based at the company’s headquarters in Paddington, UK.

The company has also announced that John Wartig, who joined Kingfisher as interim CFO on 8 April 2019, has been appointed to the newly created role of Chief Transformation and Development Officer. He will remain on the Group Executive team, with direct responsibility for transformation, IT, business development and property, and will report to Thierry Garnier, Kingfisher’s CEO.

As well as his interim CFO responsibilities, Wartig has also steered Kingfisher’s Transformation Office since joining the Company. He has instilled a heightened focus on the implementation of Kingfisher’s change programme at Kingfisher France, and in measuring the performance and delivery of key transformation milestones around IT and supply chain. John also has significant experience of complex transformations across different geographies, as well as an established track record of actively managing large property portfolios.

Wartig will commence the role of Chief Transformation and Development Officer on 21 October 2019.

Thierry Garnier, CEO of Kingfisher, said: “Bernard is a highly experienced CFO whose credentials and track record are ideally suited to Kingfisher. He played a central role in the successful transformations at both TNT and Travelport, where he also gained a deep knowledge of technology and digital services, and he has a career-long understanding of logistics and supply chain optimisation. His career at international businesses has also given him strong capital markets expertise as the group CFO of companies listed in the US, UK, Ireland and the Netherlands. We look forward to him getting started later this month.

“I am also delighted that John will be staying at Kingfisher as our Chief Transformation and Development Officer. In the short time he has been here, he has made a notable impact both in finance and in our ongoing transformation, our IT capabilities and our property portfolio. The knowledge he has built up already, as well as his expertise in these strategically key areas, will be extremely valuable for the business going forward.”

Bernard Bot commented: “I’m very happy to be joining Kingfisher. The business has strong financial characteristics and significant growth opportunities. I look forward to working with the Kingfisher team to capture these for the benefit of all stakeholders.”