05 Ken Towle

Ken Towle did not rise up the typical etail ladder, but he’s now in charge of one of the most powerful etail operations in the UK.

As director of internet retailing for Tesco, Towle heads up all the retailer’s food online, and took over when Laura Wade-Gery defected to Marks & Spencer.

Towle, who has been with Tesco for more than 25 years and worked his way up from bakery manager before becoming a management trainee, takes over at an interesting period. Tesco’s new group chief executive, Philip Clarke, places great emphasis on etail and when he started in April one of his key targets was to become a truly multichannel business globally. Alongside innovation in the UK, he wants to launch etail grocery sites in every major city in every market it operates.

Towle, who was most recently heading up Tesco’s China operation, has also played a role in Tesco’s launch of a marketplace in the UK. Clarke has said previously that he wants Tesco to take on Amazon and the launch of its marketplace – slated for early 2012 – is the start of that. Tesco must persuade small and individual sellers and other brands that they should sell their wares via the marketplace, which if successful, could have wide-ranging implications for the retail sector.

Towle is not a stranger to etail though. While most of his roles have been in traditional retailing, he did work on Tesco’s fledgling online operation in the 1990s.

Other innovations Towle has been driving in the UK include the roll-out of click and collect, the trial of its click-and-collect drive through operation, and the grocer’s launch of a range of apps.

Towle was given a group strategy remit for online retail in October.