Commercial group director Kevin Grace

Commercial group director Kevin Grace

Tesco has appointed 29-year veteran of the retailer Kevin Grace to the newly created position of group commercial director.

Grace will report to group CEO Philip Clarke and join Tesco's executive committee.

He began his Tesco career in 1982 as a Store Manager. Since then he has held a number of general roles in the UK, including support office director, before moving outside the UK.

He first moved to support SH Lee as chief operating officer in Korea and then to lead Poland as CEO.

In 2006 he returned to the Uk to take up the position of property services director. He joined the UK Board in March 2011.

In his new role, Grace will be helping create more value for Tesco in how it buys and sources products and services.

He will also have responsibility for ensuring our category management model is world class.

The appointment is the second major management move at Tesco in the last week.

The firm named Trevor Masters as the new head of its Asian business after David Potts decided to retire after 39 years at the group.