Sharon White joins CDPQ as European head

Dame Sharon White, the former chairwoman of John Lewis, has been appointed as European head of CDPQ, the Canadian pension fund that has stakes in Heathrow and Eurostar.
White, 57, who stepped down from John Lewis in September, will join as managing director and head of Europe in January.
CDPQ, Quebec’s public pension fund manager, manages more than C$450billion (£254 billion) and has about C$34 billion invested in the UK. In September the fund bought a 25 per cent stake in First Hydro Company, the UK hydropower group.
In an internal memo, first reported by Bloomberg, Marc-André Blanchard, the head of CDPQ Global and global head of sustainability, said White’s “expertise and collaborative approach” would help to drive the fund’s growth in the UK and Europe.
White, a comprehensive school-educated daughter of Jamaican immigrants, was appointed as chairwoman of John Lewis in February 2020. She was the first woman and the first black person to lead the partnership.
Her time as chair coincided with John Lewis grappling with both the pandemic pressure and the cost of living crisis as consumers cut back on discretionary spending on items such as homewares and fashion. Waitrose also suffered as shoppers shunned the upmarket grocer in favour of cheaper alternatives.
During her tenure White implemented a cost-cutting strategy in which the retailer cut thousands of jobs and closed one third of John Lewis’s 51 department stores. Last year she came under pressure from a vote of confidence in her leadership as the partnership struggled to turn around its fortunes.
It has recently reported a revival in sales as total revenues at John Lewis rose 2 per cent to £5.2 billion in the six-month period to July 27.
Before taking the reins at John Lewis, White spent 25 years in the public sector and government. Between 2015 and 2019, White was the boss of Ofcom, the communications regulator. She has also worked at the British Embassy in Washington, the World Bank and the Ministry of Justice.
White is also due to take up the role of chairwoman of Frontier Economics, the economic consultancy, in January.