The executive chairman of JD Sports has stepped down from his position with immediate effect.
The Greater Manchester-headquartered company said the move by Peter Cowgill comes "as a consequence of an ongoing review of its internal governance and controls" and a decision to "accelerate the separation" of the roles of chair and chief executive.
In a statement issued to the London Stock Exchange, the group added that non-executive director Helen Ashton, who currently chairs the audit and risk committee, will become interim non-executive chair.
READ MORE: JD Sports raises profits expectations to £940m and reveals target for 2023
She is a former chief financial officer at ASOS and has also held executive level roles in Asda, Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group and CEO positions in high growth private equity backed businesses. She first joined the group in November 2021.
JD Sports also confirmed that non-executive director Kath Smith will become interim CEO.
She has previously been managing director of both Adidas and Reebok and was also general manager and vice president of The North Face EMEA.
The company added that the process to recruit a chief executive "remains ongoing" and a process will now start to recruit a new non-executive chair.
Helen Ashton said: "The business has developed strongly under Peter's leadership into a world-leading multi-channel retailer with a proven strategy and clear momentum.
"However, as our business has become bigger and more complex, what is clear is that our internal infrastructure, governance and controls have not developed at the same pace.
"As we capitalise on the great opportunities ahead of us, the board is committed to ensuring that we have the highest standards of corporate governance and controls appropriate to a FTSE-100 company to support future growth."
The move comes after JD Sports recently upped its profits expectations for its latest financial year to approximately £940m.
In February JD Sports and Footasylum were fined almost £5m after breaching the rules around a merger blocked by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The CMA said during two meetings, which took place on July 5, 2021, and August 4, 2021, JD Sports' Peter Cowgill and Footasylum CEO Barry Bown "exchanged commercially sensitive information and then failed to alert or promptly alert the CMA".
The companies were fined nearly £4.7m for the collective breaches.
In January Mr Cowgill sold 10 million shares in the retail giant.
