Alex Thursby to leave Rank Group Board
Thursby will not stand for re-election as Chair of the Rank Group Board, and will step down after October’s Annual General Meeting.
Key points:
– Thursby is leaving his post as Chair of Rank and is stepping away from the Board entirely
– Karen Whitworth will stand in as Interim Chair
– Decision taken after successful full-year results
Alex Thursby is stepping down from the Board at Rank Group after eight years.
In that time, Thursby began as a Non-Executive Director before being appointed to the role of Chair in October 2019.
He would soon need to be re-elected to the post if he were to stay on, but in a board statement, it has been announced that he will not be standing and instead will step away following the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting on 15 October 2025.
Thursby expressed his pride and satisfaction with what has been achieved during his tenure, adding: “For a number of months now I have been reflecting on this exciting inflexion point for Rank, with the long-awaited legislative reforms for casinos now being implemented and a digital business which is beginning to scale, and I believe now is the right time to step down.”
Good to know: Following new UK Government regulation to reform land-based gambling operations, Rank Group rolled out an 882-machine expansion across all of its Grosvenor Casinos in the country
Rank Group shared a report in July that exhibited a particularly strong 12-month financial period.
John O’Reilly, CEO at Rank Group, touched on this while praising the job Thursby has done: “I would like to thank him personally for his unwavering support and for his dedication to the Rank Group and to its stakeholders. Our recent successes and outlook are due in no small part to his sure-footed guidance and invaluable leadership.”
The question of who will replace him long-term remains up in the air, but in the short-term, it will be Karen Whitworth standing in as Interim Chair, with Lucinda Charles-Jones taking a role as Interim Senior Independent Director and Keith Laslop stepping in as Interim Audit Committee Chair.
Whitworth commented: “I will be pleased to serve as the Interim Chair, following next month’s AGM, and look forward to announcing a permanent successor to Alex very soon thereafter.”
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