Home furnishing and clothes retailer Laura Ashley has recruited Roger Bambrough, former adviser to Foreign Office’s Overseas Development Administration, as a non-executive director.

A fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Bambrough began his career with one of the big accounting groups, Peat Marwick (now KPMG) and has held a succession of senior finance and audit positions in the UK and abroad.

He holds a number of other posts. Among them is a non-executive directorship of Corus Hotels.