Revolution CFO steps down, completing Boohoo’s boardroom takeover

Revolution Beauty has announced that its chief executive officer Elizabeth Lake will be stepping down from the board with immediate effect.

She will be succeeded by current non-executive director Neil Catto, whose planned appointment had initially been speculated back in July when the brand’s majority shareholder, Boohoo Group, initiated a boardroom takeover plan.

At the time, Revolution’s current chairman Derek Zissman and CEO Bob Holt had agreed to resign from the board, putting in place part of Boohoo’s proposed board appointments.

While it had also been requested that Lake step down from her role, Boohoo said that she would continue on in order to push through FY23 accounts, avoiding their delay and therefore the threat of the company’s AIM trading.

Catto’s appointment seemingly brings to an end Boohoo’s transformation of Revolution’s leadership team, which it had begun carrying out following a lengthy investigation into the brand’s FY22 accounts that ultimately revealed massively inflated sales.

Catto had previously served as group CFO for Boohoo Group over the course of 11 years, prior to which he had also held senior financial roles at the likes of BT, Carphone Warehouse and EY.

Revolution reaches settlement agreement with co-founder

The news of Catto’s appointment falls alongside Revolution’s announcement that it has come to an agreement with former executive chairman and co-founder of the brand Tom Allsworth.

The deal is in regards to a settlement of certain claims between the company and Allsworth, who was found to be partially responsible for the inflated sales discovered in Revolution’s FY22 accounts.

According to a regulatory filing, the duo have “agreed to the full and final settlement” that will see the company pay Allsworth an ex gratia payment of 270,000 pounds in “respect of certain historical legal fees” incurred by the former exec.

These bear relation to the investigation of matters related to Medichem, for which Allsworth and Revolution had entered into an acquisition agreement back in October 2021, later establishing an annual instalment agreement to Allsworth, which had come into question amid the financials investigation.

Now, Revolution has said it has agreed to a revised payment schedule for the outstanding 19 million pound consideration under Medichem, with the company now to pay the former exec in yearly instalments from 2025.

Allsworth, meanwhile, will remain in the management team of Revolution Beauty Labs, serving as founder and director of the subsidiary.