14 October 2010 | Angeline Albert
Lloyds Banking Group has appointed Best Buy Europe’s purchasing chief Michael Whitby to take up the post of group procurement director from early next year.
Whitby has been procurement director at the consumer electronic retailer for almost three years.
In his new role at Lloyds, he will replace Mark Swyny who has been interim group procurement director since the departure of the bank’s CPO Caroline Booth in early August.
Whitby has previously worked as BAA’s group supply chain director, Reuters’ global sourcing director, Barclays Bank’s sourcing director and Natwest’s head of IT purchasing.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Whitby’s expertise is in “sourcing and purchasing in the oil and construction, financial services, technology, media, transport and retail market sectors”. He was not available for comment at the time of going to press.
Lloyds Banking Group’s former CPO, Booth, left the company to join Toronto Dominion Bank Financial Group as CPO. She worked for Lloyds for more than four years – initially as group procurement director for Lloyds TSB and then for Lloyds Banking Group.
The group saved £34 million in 2009 through procurement activities, following its merger with HBOS. To lower costs following the merger, Booth consolidated existing contracts across the group, removed duplication in the supply base and took advantage of greater spending power.
