(Reuters) – British car distributor Inchcape said on Monday finance chief Gijsbert de Zoeten was stepping down after a “lapse in judgement” that involved behaviour the company said fell short of standards expected of its executives.
Inchcape, which appointed insider Adrian Lewis as acting group chief financial officer while it looks for a permanent replacement, said Zoeten’s departure was not related to the firm’s financial performance or strategy.
The company said Zoeten resigned voluntarily after the incident where “he displayed personal behaviour falling short of the high standards expected of the leadership of the group.”
Inchcape declined to elaborate on the circumstances. Zoeten did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent on the networking platform LinkedIn.
The Dutch businessman, who is in his mid-fifties, joined Inchcape in 2019. Before joining, he had previously worked for 27 years at consumer goods giant Unilever.
(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka, Yadarisa Shabong and Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru)
