Highly accomplished British senior retail executive Andrew Jennings has been appointed chairman of The Prince’s Trust Retail Leadership Group (RLG).

Andrew Jennings has more than 45 years of achievement leading some of the world’s most respected high-end, speciality and department stores. These include Harrods (General Manager), House of Fraser (Managing Director) UK, Brown Thomas (Deputy Chairman) Ireland, Holt Renfrew (President) Canada, Saks Fifth Avenue (President) USA, and Karstadt Group (CEO) Germany.

Having been an active member of the RLG for the last three years, where part of his support includes mentoring young retailers with start-up businesses to help them build their networks, Andrew takes over from the current chairperson, Lucy Harris, Partner at Clarity Search, with immediate effect. 

Andrew said:

I am very much looking forward to enabling The Prince’s Trust to develop its strategy further to give more young people opportunities in the retail sector. It is estimated that by 2022, over seven million people will be working in the retail and consumer sector, and we have a duty to ensure that young people, whatever their background, can be equipped with the right skills to enter and thrive in the sector.

"Not only will I be working to make sure The Trust receives enough funds to grow its work within retail, leisure and hospitality, but I will also be focused on providing more opportunities for young people to have valuable hands-on experience with The Trust’s retail partners and move into positive outcomes."

With a strong belief in the integral role that young people play in the retail field, he has a constant focus on the recognition and development of young talent affording them the opportunity to commence and progress their careers.

Tara Leathers, Director of Fundraising at The Prince’s Trust, said:

We have been very fortunate to have Lucy Harris as the chair of our Retail Leadership Group. Lucy and the other members of our committee have done excellent work to help us move forward with our existing partnerships and welcome new partners. We are delighted that Andrew has agreed to chair the Retail Leadership Group. He has been a longstanding and active supporter of The Trust and his experience, dedication and vision will be invaluable to help us support more young people across all these sectors.

The RLG is a collaboration of our corporate partners which has been in existence for nearly 10 years. In that time, tens of thousands of young people have been supported through our retail, consumer, leisure and hospitality partners. We currently partner with a wide range of businesses such as Marks & Spencer, Cunard, TK Maxx and HomeSense and ASDA to name a few.