Polestar's Sales Chief Stops Full-Time Role

The Polestar Group has announced that John Ashfield, its group sales and marketing director, will end full time employment with the group from January 1 next year.

The Polestar Group has announced that John Ashfield, its group sales and marketing director, will end full time employment with the group from January 1 next year but will retain positions as chairman of its Hungarian operation and as a non-executive director.

A member of the team that formed Polestar in 1998, John Ashfield said: "It is a logical time for me to leave.

The group is now streamlined and we have excellent sales directors and sales teams in place.

I am pleased to be continuing my involvement through Hungary and as a non-executive director of the group, but I am looking forward to having more time to develop other areas of interest.

The future success of Polestar and its people will always be something close to my heart." Polestar chief executive Barry Hibbert commented: "The role John has played in the group's success has been second to none.

With responsibility for the sales teams group-wide, he has played an integral part in winning long-term contracts with a number of leading magazine and newspaper publishers, thereby enabling Polestar to continue its growth and development at a strategic level.

We are pleased to keep his counsel on our board and look forward to him continuing to be part of our future." John Ashfield started in the industry at 15 as a printer in his native Hampshire.

On completion of his apprenticeship, he contracted with Nasionale Pers Group of South Africa and worked in Cape Town and southern Africa for several years.

On his return to the UK, he entered in to publishing as a quality control and purchasing executive.

He joined RR Donnelly of Chicago in 1976 as a sales executive, rising to sales manager before joining BPCC in 1982 as sales director.

He has effectively been there to date.

He was one of the six directors that led the management buyout that acquired BPCC from the Maxwell Group and was a member of the team that formed Polestar, via the merger with Watmoughs Holdings.

He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School AMP programme and is a Fellow of the Institute of Printing.

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