Jane Shepherdson joins Whistles

Jane Shepherdson takes over at Whistles

Jane Shepherdson is to return to the high street, this time to take the reigns at Whistles.

As the woman credited with turning around the success of Topshop, Ms Shepherdson's next move has been highly anticipated since she left the Arcadia group at the end of 2006. She has taken consultancy roles at People Tree and Oxfam since leaving Topshop, but this is her first return to a full time retail position.

She joins Whistles as chief executive, and will take a number of her former Topshop colleagues to help her run the company.

Speaking of the move, she commented yesterday, 'I am thrilled to be taking over such an influential brand.'

Her former boss Sir Phillip Green expressed surprise at her latest position saying, 'If you've had the best job in fashion and end up there, then what does that tell you?'

It was rumoured that Shepherdson left her role at Topshop following a dispute with Green after he hired Kate Moss to design her own range for the store.