The British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) commercial arm appoints Keith Evans as new Chief Executive Officer

British Retail Consortium Trading Limited (BRC Trading) has grown over eight years from two part-time staff to an 18 strong organisation making an annual contribution to the BRC of more than a million pounds.

BRC Trading generates non-subscription income for the BRC through providing a range of services, including the BRC Global Standards and Directory Database, the training associated with its product-safety certification scheme as well as BRC events, publications and other products.

Keith Evans will succeed John Cormode who retires on 17 September 2009 after eight tremendously successful years in the role. He now plans to undertake doctoral research at the University of Brighton.

Keith has over 25 years of blue-chip retail experience, most recently with DSGi where he held a number of senior positions, including Commercial Director for Currys. Prior to that he was Trading Director (Non-Food) with J Sainsbury where he set the plan to drive their considerable expansion in Clothing and Non-Food.

He was appointed Trading Director (Showroom and Building) at B&Q in 2000 after a long tenure at Marks and Spencer where he started his career. He held various senior roles there including Operations and Business Unit Director, Homeware. Keith was born in Wales and now lives with his family in Buckinghamshire. He is an avid sportsman who sails, cycles and plays football. He will join the business on 8 September.