Marks & Spencer poaches John Lewis finance chief Helen Weir

She replaces Alan Stewart, who recently stepped down from the retailer to join Tesco as chief financial officer.

She joined John Lewis in 2012 from Lloyds Banking Group where she was group executive director, retail, having been group finance director at Lloyds from 2004 to 2008.

Prior to this, Weir was group finance director of Kingfisher, and finance director of B&Q. She spent her early career at Unilever and McKinsey & Co. 

M&S chief executive Marc Bolland said: “We are delighted to be appointing Helen as chief financial officer. She is extremely well qualified, and brings a wealth of relevant financial, retail and consumer experience. We look forward to her joining the M&S team.”

M&S said Weir will receive a basic annual salary of £590,000.

No share awards are being granted in relation to her appointment, however, Weir will receive a one-off payment of £188,500 to compensate for the differential in contractual pension that she is forfeiting to join M&S.