Burberry Names Kate Ferry Chief Financial Officer
LONDON — Burberry has named Kate Ferry its chief financial officer and executive director, replacing Julie Brown, who had announced her departure last September.
Burberry said Ferry will join by early September and become a member of Burberry’s board and executive committee, reporting to chief executive officer Jonathan Akeroyd.
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Ferry is currently CFO of McLaren Group, where she has overseen financial strategy and investor relations, supporting the broader strategic development of the motorsport and automobile manufacturer over the past two years.
Prior to McLaren, Ferry was group CFO of TalkTalk Telecom Group from 2017 to 2021. She is currently an independent non-executive director of Greggs, the British bakery chain.
Akeroyd said Ferry “has extensive experience of public markets, business transformation and development, and an excellent understanding of the luxury industry. She is a strong addition to our leadership team and I am excited about her joining to support this next phase of Burberry’s development.”
Burberry chair Gerry Murphy said Ferry “has the energy and experience to support the delivery of our ambitious plan, announced last November by Jonathan, to realize Burberry’s potential in modern British luxury.”
He also thanked Brown for her “professionalism and her enormous contribution to Burberry’s progress over the last six years, and to wish her every success in her new role.”
Brown, who will leave her role on April 1, is joining British healthcare giant GlaxoSmithKline as chief financial officer. She served as Burberry’s chief operating and chief financial officer since 2017, helping to shepherd the company through Brexit and the COVID-19 crisis.
In her new role, Ferry will oversee finance and business-services functions, investor relations, internal audit and risk management, as well as tax, trade and treasury compliance.
Ferry began her career with PricewaterhouseCoopers in London and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1998. She then moved to Merrill Lynch, where she became a director within the retail sector equity research team, participating in numerous IPOs, including Burberry’s.
After almost 10 years in banking, Ferry joined retail telecoms group Carphone Warehouse plc as corporate affairs director, where she became a member of the executive committee following the multibillion-pound merger of Carphone with Dixons Retail to form Dixons Carphone plc.
Ferry moved to be group CFO of TalkTalk Telecom Group plc in 2017 before joining McLaren Group as CFO in 2021.
At Burberry, she will earn a salary of 675,000 pounds per year and have an annual cash benefits allowance of 20,000 pounds. Her pension entitlement will be 10 percent of her base salary.
She will also receive two cash bonus awards payable over the next two years to compensate for cash incentives from her current employer, which she is expected to forfeit. The aggregate maximum value of those buyout awards is approximately 1.56 million pounds, Burberry said.
Ian Brimicombe, currently senior vice president, specialist finance and projects at Burberry, has been named interim CFO from April 2, and will join Burberry’s executive committee from that date, the company confirmed.
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