Profile: Helen Dickinson, new director general, British Retail Consortium

In the last 23 years Dickinson has worked her way up to her current role at KPMG of head of retail. An accountant by background, Dickinson says she worked in a range of auditing roles but became more focused on retail as she was gradually given more clients in the sector.

“I realised I loved working in the sector,” she says.

“It’s really fast-moving and up to the minute. Everyone has got an opinion about retailing because we’re all consumers that have our own experiences.”

She says one of her focuses at BRC will be understanding how retailers respond to customer expectations “which are changing all the time because of the technology we have now.

“As a country, we are up there for developing new areas of mobile and e-commerce because we lead the world in our online trading,” she says.

Dickinson says that while she will be sad to leave KPMG, she is “very excited” about her new role at the BRC, where she will be the first female director general for 13 years.

“There is a huge amount going on in the sector at the moment against a pretty challenging backdrop,” she says.

Taking up the post in December as current director general Stephen Robertson steps down, Dickinson’s appointment may come as a surprise to some because as she has never been a retailer. But after two decades of closely working with a diverse number of store groups over her career, Dickinson’ two decades of experience is sure to stand her in good stead.

Current chairman Rob Templeman certainly thinks she has the right credentials for the job.

When her appointment was revealed Templeman said he was “delighted to welcome someone of Helen’s calibre to lead the BRC in its next phase of development”.

He added: “She brings a wealth of knowledge and understanding of the sector to the role. Her extensive experience at the highest level will help us support members through these challenging times.”

A people person, Dickinson says she manages her team in a similar way to a retailer by picking people and building teams she wants to work with. “People are key to the way retailers work,” she says.

Dickinson will be in very good company at the BRC. She makes up just one half of a fresh leadership team, with Kingfisher group chief executive Ian Cheshire set to take over as chairman when Templeman steps down in October. Cheshire is the first serving chief executive to take up the role.

The fact that Surrey-born Dickinson has worked at just one company across her 23 year career belies the fact she is rather adventurous. As a seven year-old her family relocated to New Zealand before moving back to Devon where she grew up as a teenager, giving her a taste for broader horizons.

Then after getting caught up in a holiday romance, Dickinson spontaneously followed her love interest to Portugal in her gap year from Kingston University and the two lovebirds stayed together for 14 years.

Now a self-confessed workaholic, Dickinson enjoys exercising when she can. In her spare time she plays tennis and because she lives in London, she is fond of walking. She is also a keen roller blader after taking it up five years ago and ventures out to Hyde Park for a whiz around the block.

“It looks easier than it is,” she reveals but says, luckily, she has not had too many bumps and bruises to date.

Hopefully her transition from KPMG to the BRC will be just as smooth.