McCarthy & Stone, a developer and manager of retirement communities in the UK, has appointed Gill Barr as a non-executive director of the group, she succeeds Mike Parsons as chair of the remuneration committee and will also join the risk & audit committee.

Barr has held senior strategy, marketing and business development positions at John Lewis & Partners, Kingfisher, MasterCard and KPMG, and was group marketing director of The Co-operative Group between 2011 and 2014.

She is currently a non-executive director of PayPoint, N Brown Group, Wincanton and was previously a non-executive director of Morgan Sindall and has considerable experience as a remuneration committee member and chair.

Paul Lester, chairman of McCarthy & Stone, said: “We are pleased to announce Gill’s appointment as a non-executive director and we welcome her to the board. Gill brings considerable expertise in terms of customer strategy, proposition development and communication including effective use of digital channels. I am confident she will make a valuable addition to the Group and help deliver our new strategy. I would also like to thank Mike Parsons for his work chairing the remuneration committee and I look forward to welcoming Gill to this role.”