Ex-Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe joins NHS Test and Trace
Former Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe has been appointed as a director at the UK’s beleaguered coronavirus testing service.
Coupe, who was once caught on camera singing “we’re in the money” in relation to a since canned merger between Sainsbury’s and Asda, has been appointed testing director of NHS Test and Trace.
The former supermarket boss, who retired at the end of May, will replace Sarah-Jane Marsh who will return to her role as chief executive of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.
Baroness Dido Harding, who runs NHS Test and Trace and is interim executive chairwoman of the National Institute for Health Protection, said in an email seen by Health Service Journal that Coupe will “bring a wealth of experience in large scale supply chains, logistics and digital transformation”.
Marsh will step down at the end of October.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care added: “We are grateful to Sarah-Jane Marsh for her leadership of the testing programme to date.”
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said that local public health teams should be leading contact tracing efforts.
“How about putting those trained in actual infectious disease control in charge of Test & Trace?” he said on Twitter.
Coupe announced in January this year that he would step down as Sainsbury’s chief executive after six years at the helm, saying it had been a “very difficult” personal decision.
The announcement came nine months after the Competition and Markets Authority blocked the £7.3bn mega-merger between Asda and Sainsbury’s.