Seraphine appoints French Connection CFO Lee Williams

Seraphine, the listed maternity and nursing brand, has appointed French Connection's finance chief Lee Williams as CFO.

Williams will join the business, which floated in London in July, in the first half of 2022 as group CFO and executive director. He is currently CFO and Company Secretary at French Connection, the fashion group which recently agreed a £29m sale led by its second largest shareholder Apinder Singh Ghura taking the business private.

Prior to French Connection, Williams was group director of finance at ASOS from December 2014 to April 2016 and served nine months as interim CFO. Seraphine CEO David Williams had previously held senior director roles at ASOS and left in 2017 to join Seraphine as COO. He took over as CEO in 2019 and led its £150m float this year.

Seraphine has also confirmed that its group finance director John Bailey will be stepping down, but will remain with the business to carry out a handover with Lee Williams when he arrives.

Lee Williams

CEO David Williams said: "On behalf of the company, I am delighted to welcome Lee to the team. Lee is a strong commercial and strategic CFO with experience in both growth and established businesses and recent listed business experience. I look forward to working with him and the executive leadership team as we continue to deliver the next phase of Seraphine’s growth strategy. 

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank John Bailey for his significant contribution to the business over the last eight years. Under his tenure as Finance Director, John’s work has been integral to the business, particularly as we moved from private to public ownership. I know he is proud of what he has helped to achieve, and we are all immensely grateful to him for his invaluable contribution to our growth story."