The historic high street retailer has brought former Amazon and Tesco stalwart John Farrell into the fold as commercial director, ambient, and has promoted Jeni Blackett to commercial director, fish, Retail Week reported.
Farrell and Blackett’s joint appointment will serve to replace the chief commercial officer position, which had been held by Kara Greatorex, who was brought in from grocery rival Aldi in 2024.
Farrell had spent more than seven years with Amazon, based out of its Seattle offices, and had worked in the US tech giant’s secretive ‘special projects’ teams. He also worked as chief merchant concurrently until January 2025.
Prior to this, Farrell spent more than a decade at Tesco, holding a range of senior leadership roles, culminating in group transformation director.
Having joined M&S in 2022, Blackett has held a variety of roles within the business and leaves her role as fresh foods trading director to take up her new position.
Before making the switch to M&S, Blackett had spent more than 13 years at direct rival Tesco alongside Farrell, and held the head of health and sustainable diets role before her departure.
Head of supply chain Susan Massicot will also move up to the M&S food leadership team. All three will report to food managing director Alex Freudmann.
In a memo to staff announcing the changes, Freudmann said: “John will bring strong commercial expertise and an international perspective, and alongside Jeni, Susan and the rest of the food leadership team, I’m confident we have the right team in place, focused on continuing to deliver quality, value and innovation for our customers.”
