Goodyear, who has served in the position since 2017 and was chief executive from 2003 to 2016, will also retire from the board when he steps down in July 2024 following the firm’s AGM.
He will be succeeded by fellow non-executive director Steve Cooke, who will join the board as a non-executive director on 1 November 2023.
Planned carefully
A statement from Youngs’s said: “The Board has planned carefully for Goodyear’s succession and having overseen Simon Dodd assume the chief executive role last July, agrees that next year is the right time for Steve to step down.
“Over his time at Young’s, Goodyear has overseen the transformation of the company into a premium, individual and differentiated managed house operator of pubs with rooms.”
Cooke is currently the senior partner at Slaughter and May solicitors, where he will retire form in April 2024, and has a more than 40-years of corporate experience, having joined the firm in 1982, before heading its mergers and acquisitions practice from 2001 to 2016.
In addition, Cooke has also advised companies in the consumer, leisure, media and retail sectors, and will bring “invaluable experience and an external perspective to the board”, the pubco stated.
Valuable perspective
Earlier this year, the pubco, which has 227 pubs, announced it had invested almost £60m into its estate in the latest financial year, with preliminary results for the 53 weeks ending 3 April 2023 showingrevenue was up 19.4% against the previous year to £368.9m.
Goodyear, who originally joined Young’s in 1995, said: “Cooke is an exceptional corporate lawyer with an excellent reputation who has risen to senior partner at one of the most admired law firms in the world.
“He will bring a strong and valuable external perspective to the Board, and I’m delighted that, with the full support of the board, he will be joining Young’s as a non-executive director in November before taking over as chairman in July 2024.”
