Not long after Dame Sharon White had announced that she would be stepping down as chairwoman of the John Lewis Partnership, a partner at the retailer lamented that the mood “is quite flat today. People are a bit shocked and sad. She was very popular within the business.”
White told staff that she would be leaving the group when her term ended in February 2025, making her the shortest-serving chairman or chairwoman in its 160-year history. The news will have left workers even more unsettled about the future of their beloved partnership, nursing multimillion-pound losses and struggling to drive down debts.
White, 56, has asked the partnership’s board to initiate the process to appoint a successor as she enters the latter stages of her five-year
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