New role for Lyreco’s Purslow

Experienced Lyreco exec Ben Purslow has been handed a new group-level role.

Purslow has been named Group Sales Director, effective January 2023, 12 months after he made the move to the reseller’s head office as Global Head of Group Accounts.

He has been with Lyreco since 1992 and has held a variety of sales-related roles over the past 30 years. These have included Group Corporate Accounts Director, VP of Sales in Canada and Director of International Accounts in the UK.

CEO transition at Newell

Newell Brands has appointed a new CEO, with incumbent Ravi Saligram set to retire later this year.

Current company President Chris Peterson will succeed Saligram following Newell’s annual shareholder meeting on 16 May. Peterson joined the vendor in 2018 as CFO and became President earlier this year. He also spent a few weeks as interim CEO prior to Saligram’s appointment in July 2019.

All of Newell’s segment CEOs and commercial functional leaders – with the exception of Chief Legal & Administrative Officer Brad Turner and Chief HR Officer Steve Parsons – will now report to Peterson.

His promotion to the top job was announced shortly after Newell confirmed a major new restructuring programme at the vendor that includes reducing corporate jobs by 13%.

Obituaries

Global founder passes away OPI was saddened to learn that Saul Feldberg, founder and Chairman of leading workplace furniture group Global, has passed away. He died peacefully, at the age of 87, surrounded by his family.

Feldberg founded Global in 1966, with a singular vision: to manufacture an office chair the average person could afford. In 1983, he established Teknion to pursue the architecture and design community.

Under his leadership, and along with his sons Joel and David, President and CEO of Global and Teknion respectively, each company has grown to be one of the largest global furniture vendors.