are confident he will bring the same focus and energy to the wider group,” said chairman David Kirk.  Kathmandu acquired RipCurl for $350 million in October 2019. Former Topman managing director joins BooHoo BooHoo Group has appointed Mitch Hughes as the new managing director of its newly acquired Arcadia Group brands Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, and Burton. Hughes, Topman’s former MD, joined Arcadia in 2015 as the buying director of Burton. He joined BooHoo last month. During his career, Hughes has also worked at British fashion and homewares retailer Matalan and fashion giant Marks and Spencer. BooHoo, which also acquired department store Debenhams in January, bought Arcadia’s e-commerce, digital assets and associated intellectual property rights that also include customer data, business information, and inventory of Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, and Burton. National Retail Association appoints three new board directors To boost modern retail representation, the National Retail Association (NRA) has added three new directors to its board: Universal Store CEO Alice Barbery, Flora & Fauna founder and CEO Julie Mathers, and Antony Moore, general manager of Lotteries Retail for Tabcorp. NRA chair Mark Brodie said each new director will bring their own understanding of retail to the board – from growing a small business to running a large one, and from training staff to managing franchise operations. “They are deeply connected to the realities of modern retail, and they bring to the NRA board unrivalled knowledge of the challenges and opportunities in the Australian retail business environment,” he said. The existing board of directors includes Mark Brodie, an experienced retail food franchise entrepreneur, Ian Winterburn, former CEO of the Wallace Bishop Jewellery Group, Paul Greenberg, entrepreneur and founder of the National Online Retailers Association, Tim Schaafsma, former Chief Operating Officer of Greenlit Brands, and Geoff Hogg, Chief Casino Officer of The Star Entertainment Group. Carsome appoints former Iflix exec as its new chief data officer Southeast Asian e-commerce platform Carsome has appointed former Iflix executive Piyush Palkar as its new chief data officer, as the company plans to revolutionise the used car industry through digitalisation. Reporting directly to the Group CEO, Palkar will lead data maturity, data engineering and management, AI-based data-driven innovations, business intelligence, insights and data analytics. He will also embed data culture in the organisation to support organisational efficiency and agility through data.  Pakar, who is a qualified construction engineer, was the head of data at streaming site Iflix and subsequently WeTV Iflix, part of China’s Tencent Holdings which acquired Iflix.  “We are happy to have Piyush join the Carsome family to deliver a successful data strategy by establishing company-wide core data principles and best practices,” said Carsome Co-founder and Group CEO Eric Cheng.  “This forms our commitment in building a trusted used car industry and elevating consumer experience, now powered by data.”