Peter Erskine announced that he is stepping down from his job as chairman of troubled British bookmaker Ladbrokes after six years at the helm. The announcement comes only a month after former CEO Richard Glynn resigned amid complaints from shareholders over the company’s poor results.
John Kelly, a non-executive director, founder and former CEO of Gala Coral, will lead a search for Erskine’s successor.
“Since becoming chairman six years ago,” Erskine said in a statement, “Ladbrokes has undertaken the necessary and difficult journey to modernize much of our business operations to enable us to compete more effectively in a rapidly changing digital market and a challenging retail and political environment. In that time real progress has been made.
“In recent months I, and the board, have overseen the transition from Richard Glynn to a new CEO, Jim Mullen. I feel that now, with stronger foundations in place and with our new CEO looking to build on the changes made, it is the right time for there to be a change in chairman to one who will be able to see out the entirety of the next stage of the journey.
“It has been a real honor to be the chairman of Ladbrokes for these past six years. The search for my successor will begin now, and I will step down when my successor is in place. Until that time, my focus will be on helping Jim formulate and then implement his plans for the business.”
