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Hush appoints former Superdry COO Susanne Given as chair

Lauretta Roberts
01 October 2020

Fashion and lifestyle brand Hush has appointed former Superdry COO Susanne Given as its first non-executive chair.

Given has a wealth of experience in retail over an executive career that included roles as Chief operating officer at Superdry, Buying Director at John Lewis & Partners and UK/Ireland Managing Director at TK Maxx.

Her appointment comes after the London-based brand received backing from retail expert private equity house True, which has taken a majority stake. Given is also chair of Made.com, as well as being a non executive director of FTSE100 company Morrisons Plc, Tritax BB REIT Plc, Trent Holdings (India) and Al Tayer Group (UAE).

hush founder Mandy Watkins, who runs the business with husband Rupert Youngman, said of the appointment: “We’re really excited to start working with Susanne on this next stage of our journey. She has amazing experience of scaling brands, both in executive and non-executive roles, which will be invaluable over the coming years as we look to our expand and introduce our brand to new customers and new markets. In addition, we particularly value her digital expertise, as well as the emphasis she puts on brand building.”

Given said: “hush has an authentic core which shines through in both its proposition and its culture. I am excited to be joining the business at this stage, to work with the very successful founding team that is Mandy and Rupert, as well as Kate Bartman, who has recently stepped up to the CEO role after working alongside Mandy and Rupert for the past eight years. During this extraordinary time where consumers are turning to digitally native brands rather than physical stores, hush is particularly well positioned to take advantage of the tailwinds fanning the online sector."

hush was founded in 2003 by Australian Mandy Watkins and over the past 17 years has established itself as one of the UK’s leading retailers of women’s contemporary casual fashion. Turnover through its own website and via its partnership with John Lewis & Partners has grown fivefold in the past four years to £50m - and has accelerated over the past six months with online sales up 50% since the end of March.

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