A solicitor who played a key role in turning round The Co-operative Group is to take charge of the Crown Prosecution Service, it was announced this morning.

Nick Folland, former chief external affairs officer at The Co-operative Group, has been appointed chief executive. He takes over from Peter Lewis, who is retiring, next month.

Folland was an executive board member, general counsel, company secretary and corporate affairs director at retail giant Kingfisher Plc between 2007 and 2013.

The CPS’s announcement states that he joined The Co-operative Group as chief of staff to the chief executive in 2013, ‘where he was part of the team brought in to rescue the bank and reform the Co-op’.

He was later promoted to chief external affairs officer at the group.

In March 2014, the organisation announced that he was adding responsibility for all aspects of membership and social goals to his existing responsibilities for internal and external communications as part of changes to the executive management team, designed to ‘start the important work of revitalising the organisation’.

The CPS’s announcement states that Folland is a member of the Halley Project Board of the British Antarctic Survey and a member of the Natural Environment Research Council.

He is also an ‘accomplished triathlon competitor’ in his spare time.