Brian McBride takes the chair at online retailer Asos

By PERRY GOURLEY
Published on 02/10/2012 00:00

BRIAN McBride, the Scots-born e-commerce veteran, has been named as the new chairman of Asos, the fast-growing online fashion retailer.

McBride, a former managing director of Amazon in the UK, will take over from current chairman Waheed Alli next month and is expected to be paid about £150,000 a year.

The retailer, which targets young women looking to emulate the designer looks of celebrities like Alexa Chung, Tulisa Contostavlos and Kate Moss, had said in May that Alli would step down after 12 years with the firm. He has overseen dramatic growth at the company, with the shares rising more than ten-fold in the past three years alone.

Glasgow-based McBride, a board member at venture capital group Scottish Equity Partners, spent almost six years heading up Amazon’s UK business and prior to that held senior positions at Dell, IBM and T-Mobile. Asos chief executive Nick Robertson said: “Brian has a wealth of relevant experience, not just in e-commerce and technology but in fast growth international businesses.”

Last month the firm said it would meet full-year profit forecasts after it maintained a heady rate of sales growth in its fourth quarter, buoyed by strong trading in overseas markets such as the US and Australia. Shares in Asos closed down 18p at 2,179p.