News

24/02/2012

Dignity plc (‘Dignity’ or ‘the Group’) Changes to the Board of Directors

Dignity plc, the listed funeral services group, announces that James Newman, its Senior Independent Non-executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee and Bill Forrester one of its Non-executive Directors will be retiring from the Board of Directors on 31 March 2012 following eight years of valuable service to the Group. Both James and Bill were appointed Non-executive Directors of Dignity immediately prior to its listing in April 2004 and, in accordance with best practice as outlined in the UK Corporate Governance Code (formerly the Combined Code), have chosen to retire given their length of service.

Commenting on their retirement the Chairman of Dignity, Peter Hindley, said,

“James and Bill have proved to be outstanding Non-executive Directors of the Group and their knowledge and experience has been extremely valuable particularly in our early years as a listed company. I would like to thank them personally and on behalf of the Board for their service with us and wish them all the very best for the future.”   

Following these retirements Dignity is pleased to announce the following appointments to its Board with effect from 31 March 2012:

Jane Ashcroft has been appointed as a Non-executive Director. Jane is chief executive of Anchor, a leading provider of services to older people and has held a number of senior positions since joining them in 1999. She is also non-executive Chair of the English Community Care Association and was also a non-executive Director of Stroud & Swindon Building Society prior to its merger with Coventry Building Society in 2010.

Martin Pexton has also been appointed as a Non-executive Director. Martin was previously Managing Director of LMS Capital plc and prior to that an executive director of London Merchant Securities plc and personnel director of the law firm Allen & Overy. He has also in the past held a number of non-executive positions including roles with the quoted companies Minerva plc and Inflexion plc as well as a number with private companies.

Both Martin and Jane will be considered to be Independent Non-executive Directors.

Under s822 of the Companies Act 2006 neither director has a notifiable shareholding in the Company.

Following these changes, Alan McWalter, the Chair of the Remuneration Committee will become the Senior Independent Non-executive Director and Ishbel Macpherson will take over as Chair of the Audit Committee.

The newly appointed directors will also become members of the Audit, Remuneration and Nomination sub-committees of the Board. These appointments mean that there will remain an equal number of Independent Non-executive Directors to Executive Directors serving on the Board in addition to the Non-executive Chairman.

As required by Listing Rule 9.6.13, a schedule listing all current and past directorships in other publicly quoted companies held by Jane Ashcroft and Martin Pexton in the previous five years is shown below.

Jane Ashcroft current and past directorships:

Martin Pexton current and past directorships:

There is no other information required to be disclosed pursuant to Listing Rule 9.6.13R in respect of Jane Ashcroft or Martin Pexton

Richard Portman

Corporate Services Director

Dignity plc

Telephone: 0121-321-5602

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