Directors, Officers & Advisers

Dale W. Hilpert*, 68, Director, appointed to the Board in 2003. Mr. Hilpert has served on the Board of Ann Taylor Stores Corporation since 2004. He was Chief Executive of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. from April 2001 until his retirement in January 2003. Prior to this he was Chairman and Chief Executive of Foot Locker, Inc. which he joined as President and Chief Operating Officer in 1995. Mr. Hilpert was asked to join the Board in order that it might benefit from his general management and retail specific skills.

Marianne Miller Parrs*, 67, Director, appointed to the Board in 2008. Ms. Parrs has served on the boards of Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (previously The Stanley Works Inc.), and CIT Group Inc. as an independent director since April 2008 and 2003 respectively. In addition, Ms. Parrs serves on the board of United Way of the Mid-South. Ms. Parrs retired in 2007 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of International Paper Company where she had been since joining in 1974 as a Pension Trust Investment Manager and holding a number of positions before first being appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in 1995. She held this position until 1999 when she was appointed Executive Vice President with responsibility for Information Technology, Global Sourcing, Global Supply Chain and Investor Relations. She held this role for six years and she was also reappointed Chief Financial Officer in 2005. Previously Ms. Parrs was a Security Analyst at a number of firms including Merrill Lynch. The Board considered it necessary to recruit to the Board a director with substantial US financial reporting experience.

Thomas Plaskett*, 67, Director, appointed to the Board in 2008. Since 1991 Mr. Plaskett has been Chairman of Fox Run Capital Associates, a private consulting firm focusing on financial advisory and corporate governance services for emerging companies. From 1999 until 2000 he served as the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Probex Corp, an energy technology company. He also served as Vice Chairman of Legend Airlines, from 1997 until 2001. Mr. Plaskett served as Interim President, Chief Executive Officer, and Acting Chief Financial Officer of Greyhound Lines for two years before becoming Chairman from 1995 until 1999, when the company was sold. Previously, he was Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pan Am Corporation from 1988 until 1991. Prior to that, Mr. Plaskett was President and Chief Executive Officer of Continental Airlines from 1986 to 1987. Mr. Plaskett also held several senior management positions at American Airlines and AMR Company between 1974 and 1986. Mr. Plaskett currently serves as a director of Alcon Laboratories, Inc. and Radioshack Corporation and was a director of Novell Corporation until April 2010. Mr. Plaskett joined the Board as his considerable general management skills were considered to be an enhancement to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the Board.

Todd Stitzer*, 59, Director, appointed to the Board in January 2012. Mr. Stitzer was, until its acquisition by Kraft, Inc. in 2010, the Chief Executive Officer of Cadbury PLC, having joined that company in 1983 as Assistant General Counsel for North America, before moving into strategic planning, and marketing and sales roles. Mr. Stitzer became CEO of Cadbury PLC’s wholly owned subsidiary, Dr Pepper/7 Up Inc., in 1997 and then of Cadbury PLC in 2003.

Mr. Stitzer attended Harvard College and Columbia University Law School and practiced as an attorney with Lord, Day & Lord. He is a director of publicly held Diageo PLC and of privately held Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. He is a member of the advisory board of Hamlin Capital Management, a privately held investment advisory firm, and is also a member of the advisory committee to the board of Virgin Group Holdings Ltd., a privately held company.

Russell Walls*, 67, Director, appointed to the Board in 2002. He was Group Finance Director of BAA plc until his retirement in August 2002 and was the senior independent director of Hilton Group plc until May 2003 and Stagecoach Group plc until August 2006. Mr. Walls is a non-executive director of Aviva plc, is Treasurer of the British Red Cross Society and was a non-executive director of Delphic Diagnostics Limited until January 2010. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Mr. Walls has considerable experience as a financial manager and as such has developed a financial expertise considered to be of significant benefit to the efficiency and effectiveness of the Board.

No Director is or was the subject of legal proceedings that are required to be disclosed pursuant to SEC rules.

* Independent directors all of whom satisfied the definitions of independence and have been affirmed by the Board as being ‘independent’ in accordance with NYSE Listing Standards.

The Bye-laws specify that every director not appointed by shareholders is required to retire at the annual general meeting following their appointment to the Board. Such directors, which comprise a third of the Board, will retire and those directors will be eligible to offer themselves for re-election at the annual general meeting each year. All of the directors other than Ms. Knox, Ms. Parrs and Mr. Plaskett have been appointed to the Board by shareholders. Ms. Knox, Ms. Parrs and Mr. Plaskett will therefore retire from the Board at the forthcoming annual general meeting. Following consideration of the recommendations of the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee, other than Ms. Knox who has indicated her intention to retire at the conclusion of the annual general meeting to be held in June 2009, they offer themselves for re-election in each case with the endorsement of the Board.

Board Committees

Audit Committee: Marianne Parrs (Chairman), Dale Hilpert and Russell Walls.

Compensation Committee: Thomas Plaskett (Chairman), Dale Hilpert and Robert Blanchard.

Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee: Russell Walls (Chairman), Robert Blanchard, Marianne Parrs and Thomas Plaskett.

Independent directors Terms of Reference
Click here to view the independent (non-executive) directors Terms of Reference.

Executive Officers

Robert Anderson, 52, became Chief Executive of Signet’s UK division in January 2003 having joined the Company as Chief Operating Officer of the UK division in August 2000. Mr. Anderson is a non-executive director of Provident Financial Plc. Prior to joining Signet, Mr. Anderson worked at Marks & Spencer Plc for 19 years, lastly as Business Unit Director.

Michael W. Barnes, 50, Chief Executive Officer and Director, was appointed to the Board in January 2011. Mr. Barnes joined the Company as Chief Executive Officer Designate on December 1, 2010 and succeeded Terry Burman as Chief Executive Officer and Director upon Mr. Burman’s retirement on January 29, 2011. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Barnes was President, Chief Operating Officer and director of Fossil, Inc., having served in those and other executive capacities at Fossil since 1985, and as a director of Fossil since it became a public company in 1993.

Mark Jenkins, 53, Group Company Secretary, was appointed in 2004. Previously, he was director and Company Secretary at COLT Telecom Group plc and Group Company Secretary at Peek plc. He is a barrister.

Mark Light, 49, became Chief Executive of Signet’s US division in January 2006 having been President and Chief Operating Officer of the US division from 2002. He joined Signet in 1978.

William Montalto, 64, was promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the US division in 2006. Mr. Montalto had previously held the positions of Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer (2002), Executive Vice President Strategic Services (1995) and Senior Vice President Management Information Systems & Distribution (1990), having joined the US division in 1986 as Vice President Management Information Systems.

Michael Povall, 52, joined Signet’s UK division in April 2002. Prior to this, his career was predominantly in retail working in the food retail sector including roles in supply chain and retail operations. In his current role as Chief Administrative Officer of the UK division, he is responsible for IT, Human Resources and Central Facilities.

Kenneth Pratt, 49, re-joined Signet in April 2007 as CFO of the UK division, having first joined the Company in 1987 and was Group Financial Controller from 1991 until 1997. From 1997 to 2007, Mr. Pratt worked for a European Division of Liz Claiborne, Inc. in a number of positions with leadership roles spanning Finance, Retail Operations, Supply Chain, Human Resources and IT. In his current role as CFO of Signet’s UK division, Mr. Pratt is responsible for the Finance, Logistics, Corporate Sales and Compliance functions, as well as strategic planning.

Ron Ristau, 57, joined Signet as Chief Financial Officer Designate on April 15, 2010, and became Chief Financial Officer on June 26, 2010. Prior to joining the Company he spent ten years with New York & Company, Inc., most recently as President, CFO and director. He has also held posts at Revlon, Inc., Playtex International, United Technologies Corporation and Peat, Marwick Mitchell & Co. Mr. Ristau is a Certified Public Accountant.

Kevin Ryan, 53, joined Signet’s UK division in February 2000. Previously Mr. Ryan spent his career predominantly in retail fulfilling a number of field operational roles. As Operations Director of the UK division, Mr. Ryan is currently responsible for all store operations within the UK including management of the field team, property portfolio and the capital fit out program.

Robert Trabucco, 56, joined the US division in 2003 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the US division. He had previously worked for KLS Associates, a retail consulting practice.

No Executive Officer is or was the subject of legal proceedings that are required to be disclosed pursuant to SEC rules.

Sebastian Hobbs, 41, joined Signet’s UK division in March 2011. Prior to joining Signet, Mr. Hobbs worked in a number of retail companies, most recently at Blacks Leisure Group plc for 5 years. In his current role as Commercial Director of the UK division, he is responsible for marketing and purchasing of watches and jewelry for the UK division.

Advisors

Auditor
KPMG Audit Plc,
8 Salisbury Square, London EC4Y 8BB, United Kingdom.

Financial advisor
Lazard & Co., Limited,
50 Stratton Street, London W1J 8LL, United Kingdom.

Bermuda lawyer
Conyers, Dill & Pearman,
Clarendon House, 2 Church Street, Hamilton HM11, Bermuda.

Bermuda secretary
Ms. Susie Grant,
Codan Services Limited,
Richmond House, 12 Par-la-Ville Road, Hamilton HM08, Bemuda.

UK lawyer
Herbert Smith LLP,
Exchange House,
Primrose Street, London EC2A 2HS, United Kingdom.

US lawyer
Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP,
767 fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10153, USA.

US Transfer Agent / Exchange Agent
American Stock Transfer & Trust Company,
Peck Slip Station, PO Box 2050, New York, NY 10272-2050, USA.

UK Transfer Agent / Depositary
Capita Registrars / Capita IRG Trustees Limited,
The Registry, 34 Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent BR3 4TU, United Kingdom.

Registrar
Capita Registrars (Jersey) Limited,
12 Castle Street, St Helier, Jersey JE2 3RT, Channel Islands.

Principal Bankers
Barclays Bank PLC,
5 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 4BB, United Kingdom.

HSBC Bank plc,
8 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HQ, United Kingdom.

Royal Bank of Scotland plc,
135 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 3UR, United Kingdom.

Fifth Third Bank,
Fifth Third Center, 600 Superior Ave East, Cleveland, OH 44114, USA. 

back to top