Barclays Bank has found a new role for Alison Hutchinson, the chief executive of its failed e-procurment operation BarclaysB2B, as marketing director for Barclaycard. She takes over from Paul Parmenter, who has been promoted to the new role of chief operating officer, group marketing.
Effective October, Hutchinson will assume responsibility for all Barclaycard’s brand and product management, customer strategy, e-commerce, communications and sponsorship. She will report to Peter Crook, Barclaycard’s UK managing director. She also will become a member of the Barclaycard executive committee and sit on the group marketing executive, reporting to director, Simon Gulliford.
Barclays initially recruited Hutchinson from IBM to head up BarclaysB2B, a service aimed at delivering electronic supply chain management and e-procurement services to large corporations. However, the bank quietly pulled the plug on the venture in June after failing to demonstrate adequate returns for its ongoing investment.
Parmenter's new role is to focus on implementing marketing strategy across the group. At Barclaycard he was involved in securing sponsorship for the UK's Premiership football league and the development of Nectar, expected to be the country’s biggest customer loyalty programme and which joins together Barclaycard, Sainsbury’s, Debenhams and BP.