Co-op names Lord Myners to chair governance review

Troubled mutual the Co-operative Group has appointed former Treasury minister Lord Myners to lead a review into how the business is run.

Myners, whose previous City rules include the chairmanship of Marks & Spencer and Guardian Media Group, is taking up the newly-created role of senior independent director to chair a probe into the group’s democratic process.

His appointment comes as the Co-op faces mounting questions over corporate governance standards following the scandal surrounding disgraced former Co-op Bank chairman Paul Flowers and financial woes at its banking arm.

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Ursula Lidbetter, who last month replaced Len Wardle as the Co-op group’s chairman, said: “We have made it clear that we need to modernise and to embed the very best standards of corporate governance – while also ensuring that the voices of all our members and customers resonate through the business.

“Paul is ideally placed to oversee that work given his extensive experience across business and public life.”

Euan Sutherland, the mutual’s Scots-born chief executive, said Myners’ leadership of the governance review would be “crucial” for the organisation, which will be left owning just 30 per cent of its embattled banking arm under a rescue deal with bondholders.

Sutherland added: “What our customers, colleagues and wider membership base needs is an organisation and a business that they can be proud of again and I believe that Paul has a key role to play in helping us deliver that.”

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