Simon Brealy joins Central Co-op as Head of Technology after ‘heartbreaking’ end to time at Ted Baker

Central Co-op has appointed Simon Brealy as Head of Technology and a member of its leadership team.

He joins from Ted Baker where he served as Head of Information Technology.

In a LinkedIn post, Brealy said: “I finished up with Ted Baker last Friday (the 13th no less) - the end of over seven years of my life living and breathing what was an incredible brand with the most incredible of people working there.”

“I have been privileged to be able to work with some absolutely outstanding people who are all moving onto new things, and deserve the very best in return from their future employers and colleagues! I'll forever be grateful for the support, advice, guidance and experiences this particular group of wonderful people have shared with me.”

He added: “I’ll miss working at Ted, but new opportunity awaits, which I start at the end of the month, I've a wedding to sort out this week first.  I know it may sound mad to get married knowing that I was being made redundant, but to everyone impacted by a situation like this - life doesn't stop!! Don't let work dictate your journey.”

“Long before I knew I had the new role sorted (which I am dead excited about), my soon to be wife and I decided no matter what we were going to be married this year and we stuck to it.”

“Yes it has meant sacrifices along the way, most notably my motorcycle collection now consists of one - but it’s the one she rides with me on, so I kept the best one.”

“This has been my silver lining to what happened at Ted Baker, seeing all our work dismantled and sold off was heartbreaking, saying goodbye to long time friends absolutely was the worse, but I've been lucky and had my wedding to look forward to.”

He concluded: “To everyone I've worked with over the years at Ted, you're all amazing - it's been a rollercoaster of a ride, lots of ups and downs, but it's always been fun. So thank you for making it what it was.”

Carole Kingsbury

Earlier this year, C&C Group, an Irish manufacturer, marketer and distributor of alcoholic drinks, appointed Carole Kingsbury as its new CTO.

Last year, Kingsbury departed Ted Baker, where she served as Director of IT, with plans to take some time out. “Not often we get the opportunity to take a break in our world,” she told RTIH at the time.

She joined the company in 2019 as Head of Project Delivery, before taking on the role of Head of Business Solutions in 2020, and then Director of IT in 2022.

At the time of her departure, Ted Baker was cutting head office jobs following its acquisition by Authentic Brands Group. The latter had outsourced Ted Baker stores and its e-commerce site to retail management business AARC in April.