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Retailers
July 8, 2020
AO Mobile MD role now defunct
Mobile Phones Direct parent company AO World has further integrated the online retailer following the departure of ex-MPD CEO and AO Mobile managing director Richard Baxendale.
Mobile Phones Direct will continue to operate alongside AO World’s AO Mobile site, which launched last year. There will no longer be a managing director role for AO Mobile, but MPD’s Thatcham office will remain open.
Instead, specialist mobile teams headed by AO’s mobile director for trading, Anne-Marie Beardmore, and operations director for mobile, Simon Ryan, will be based there.
They will report to AO’s central executives, such as group purchasing director Paul Whyte, and operations director for group retail Vicky Monk.
“Mobile and connectivity are strategically important to AO and we saw big potential in Mobile Phones Direct which is why we acquired it in 2018,” said AO Mobile director of communications Russell Craig. “To realise the opportunity, we took the decision in February to integrate Mobile into the wider AO group instead of operating it as a separate business unit.
“With these changes in mind, there’s no Mobile MD or CEO role now with the centralised ‘one AO’ model, which means local teams benefit from shared expertise across the group.”
Earlier this year, Baxendale rejoined Brightstar as chief business development officer, having previously been at the distributor in the early 2000s.