Will Hobman will replace Mark Davies as NewRiver’s chief financial officer.
Davies had said in April that he would stand down once the REIT had completed its sale of the Hawthorn community pub portfolio. NewRiver sold the portfolio to Admiral Taverns for £222.3m earlier this week.
Davies will also stand down from the board of directors, but will retain his role as chief executive of Hawthorn.
NewRiver CEO Allan Lockhart said: “Mark has made an enormous contribution in helping to grow NewRiver to what it is today, having been with us every step of the way since we first floated on AIM in 2009 with seed capital of just £25m.”
He added that Davies was “a driving force and visionary behind NewRiver’s pub strategy”. NewRiver bought its first portfolio of 202 pubs from Marston’s in 2013, buying Hawthorn five years later.
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Davies said: “It has been rewarding and challenging to create a retail REIT with £1bn of assets and Hawthorn as a market leading pub company.”
Will Hobman, who has been NewRiver’s finance director for almost two years, will join the board when the Hawthorn deal completes on 20 August.
Non-exec chair Baroness Ford said: “We are delighted that Will has accepted the position of CFO and I know, from his contribution to the company to date, that he will be an excellent addition to the Board. I look forward to working with him.”
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