Dune names new CEO from Toni&Guy

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 27, 2022

There have been a lot of CEO announcements in UK retail this year so far and this week has been no different. Fresh from Monday’s news that Nigel Oddy is the new interim CEO of Matalan, on Tuesday we learned that footwear and accessories chain Dune has a new CEO too. It’s another Nigel who, like Oddy, once worked at New Look.

Nigel Darwin is joining the business and brings “extensive global brand experience from across the fashion and beauty consumer sectors”. He was most recently CEO of Toni&Guy where he “led a successful turnaround of the business”. 

He began his career at strategy consultants, OC&C, later becoming a Partner and leading the Retail Practice. Other leadership roles after OC&C included at skincare clinics sk:n, at fashion retailer New Look as mentioned, and at Tapestry’s Coach (he was President of Coach Europe).

Dune’s founder and Chairman Daniel Rubin took over the CEO’s role from James Cox in March 2020 and will now continue in the Chairman’s role.

He said he’s “looking forward to Nigel joining us at this exciting time for the business. He brings a wealth of experience of running consumer-focused companies and will play a key role in delivering our ambitious growth plans, both in the UK and internationally”.

Darwin will be based at The Dune Group’s headquarters in West London.