Ocado CFO off to Michael Page

There is to be a small shake-up at the top at groceries deliverer Ocado after the group's Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Bracey, announced his intention to turn over a new leaf at Michael Page, the recruitment firm.

Bracey, who has been the chief number cruncher at Ocado since 2009, will remain with Ocado to complete the year end audit and annual report process, and is expected to leave in April 2012. A formal process to identify his successor has already begun.

Jason Gissing, one of the co-founders of the business and current Executive Director, will take on the new board position of Commercial Director, taking charge of Ocado's retail activities, including buying, supplier and customer relationships, marketing and brand development.

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Gissing will give up responsibility for Human Resources, with personnel matters now falling under the remit of Neill Abrams, current Executive Director and Director of Legal & Business Affairs.

Mark Richardson, currently Ocado's Head of Technology, is to be promoted to a newly created board role of Operations Director.

Wendy Becker will join the company as an Independent Non-executive Director on 1 March, 2012. Becker has significant commercial experience as a result of past roles as Group Chief Marketing Officer at Vodafone and Managing Director of TalkTalk Telecom, having previously been the Partner leading McKinsey's consumer practice. Currently Becker is a non-executive director at Whitbread and a trustee of Cancer Research UK. She is expected to chair the company's remuneration committee when David Young retires at the annual general meeting.

Ocado's Chairman Michael Grade said the board room reshuffle would allow Chief Executive Officer Tim Steiner greater freedom to drive Ocado's strategy forward.

"Mark Richardson has worked closely with Tim as we have addressed the capacity issues of recent months. We believe we have re-established a positive path to allow us to meet increased demand in 2012," Grade claimed.

Bracey's appointment at Michael Page brings to an end a long search for a successor to Stephen Puckett, who announced his intention to leave the recruiter back in July of last year.