The Co-operative Group defied City grandee Lord Myners today, revealing its members would retain three seats on the crisis-wracked mutual’s new-look slimmed board.
Unveiling a far-reaching shake-up of the way it is run, the Co-op said it would cut its board from 18 to 11 members.
In addition to the members there will be an independent chairman, five independent non-executive directors and two executives.
Lord Myners had proposed a plc-style board for the Co-op that did away with any members in a report published in May that lambasted the way the beleaguered organisation had been run.
Put together with the mutual reeling from a £2.5 billion loss, falling food sales and a banking crisis that left hedge funds in control of the division that had become mired in scandal, Lord Myners quit the board amid mounting opposition to his proposals.
Under the new reforms, which will be put to a vote on August 30, all directors will be answerable to a council made up of a maximum of 100 members set up as the “guardian” of the institution’s much-vaunted “values”.
From it, a 10-to-15-member senate will be drawn to handle interactions between the two. Elections will be held on the basis of one member one vote.
Ursula Lidbetter, who will step down as chair of the organisation under the new structure, said: “We are very grateful to the Myners team for putting together the foundation. We have built on that,” she said.
