Green Park appoints head of board practice

Stanford spent 11 years at Selfridges Group in a series of senior management and executive level positions including HR director for Selfridges & Co., HR director UK & Ireland and Group HR director across Selfridges & Co, Brown Thomas, Holt Renfrew and de Bijenkorf. She brings decades of experience in building and managing HR teams within the UK consumer industry to Green Park and its client base.

Stanford began her career as a graduate trainee at BHS, before taking on HR leadership roles at Pret a Manger and M&S. Her key focus at Green Park will be to help her clients develop their organisational design and embed senior executives successfully into their teams whilst advising on board level appointments. She will also develop bespoke integration strategies that maximise efficiency and productivity during the transitional period of senior personnel change, where traditionally many firms experience a performance dip.

Stanford commented, “One of the reasons I’ve joined Green Park is because it provides dedicated consultancy to clients as part of the value added services it delivers. Part of my role will be to work with companies to help new senior colleagues navigate their way round the organisation and ensure they have the best possible opportunity to succeed.

“People rarely fail in a new role because they can’t do the job, but they do fail when they don’t fit and can’t find a way to add value. I’m looking forward to helping Green Park make a real difference to how candidates are successfully embedded within our clients’ teams.”

Steve Baggi, co-founder of Green Park and head of retail, added, “It’s fantastic to have Maria on board, particularly as we work towards the April launch of our new study into retail leadership, The DNA of the Retailers of Tomorrow. Maria’s experience of HR leadership at the highest level and her keen interest in diversity in the boardroom will provide valuable insight to our clients and we welcome her to the Green Park team.”