Diploma finance chief quits over ‘comments to female colleague'
Diploma, a £7 billion industrial group, announced on Thursday that Chris Davies, its finance chief, 'has resigned from his role and will step down from the board with immediate effect'.
It added: 'This decision follows a recent company event where, through a lapse in judgment, his personal behaviour did not meet the high standards required of the group's leadership team.'
Diploma is an industrial equipment distribution business
The company declined to say anything more. Industry sources claimed that Davies was asked to resign following reports to executives regarding comments made at the event towards a female colleague.
Davies will leave with no compensation. Executives can typically expect to receive a year's money when they resign, but the company confirmed: 'No payments will be made for loss of office.'
Davies, 55, was on a basic salary of £510,000 a year and bonuses last year increased that to a total of £1.53 million.
That reflects the strong performance of Diploma in recent times. The supplier of industrial components, cabling, seals, hoses and fasteners has been one of the great successes of the stock market in recent years and especially so under its current £4.5 million-a-year chief executive Johnny Thomson, who joined the company six years ago.
Diploma's share price has risen from £5 in 2015 to the current £52.90. Following the news of Davies's departure, the shares were down 155p, or 2.9 per cent, from the £54.45 all-time high they had closed at on Wednesday evening.
Davies joined Diploma in late 2022 after a five-year stint as finance director at National Express, the coach and bus group. Before that he had been group financial controller at Inchcape, the car dealer, and held senior roles at the drinks giant Diageo.
Diploma has appointed Wilson Ng, 43, as its acting chief financial officer while it begins the process of finding a replacement for Davies.
Ng joined Diploma in 2022, having previously been a divisional finance director at Spirax, the FTSE 100 engineer.
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