Gooding engineers Premier Farnell move

By RUTH SUNDERLAND
Updated: 17:10 EST, 25 May 2011

Val Gooding, the former chief executive of healthcare group BUPA, has been appointed chairman of engineering services group Premier Farnell in a major coup for campaigners pushing for women to break the glass ceiling.

Gooding, in a mocked-up picture below, joins chief executive Harriet Green, making Premier one of only a few UK listed companies with a top female team.

Others include Alliance Trust, where Katherine Garrett-Cox is chief executive and Lesley Knox is chairman, and Burberry which has a woman chief executive – Angela Ahrends – and a female finance director, Stacey Cartwright. 

Breaking the glass ceiling: Val Gooding has been named chairman of Premier Farnell

Publishing group Pearson is another firm run by senior women, with Dame Marjorie Scardino as chief executive and Rona Fairhead at the Financial Times. 

Premier shares, which went ex-dividend, dropped 12p to 288.4p.

Gooding, who will be paid £150,000 a year, will continue as a non-executive of Standard Chartered but will stand down from J Sainsbury’s board in July.