Jamie Oliver's brother-in-law, Paul Hunt, who had been chief executive of the Jamie Oliver Holdings since 2014, has agreed to step down from the role after seven years at the company.
Hunt, who is married to Oliver's sister Anna-Marie, had been accused of being an "incompetent bully" in 2018, before the high-profile collapse of Oliver's restaurant empire in 2019. Sources at the time told The Times that Hunt was "an arrogant, incompetent failure" and also claimed that he had made his PA type out her own redundancy letter with no forewarning.
However, Oliver took to social media in 2018 to refute these claims, stating: "There has been some negative press coverage with so-called friends of mine saying nasty, untrue things about Paul Hunt, who is the CEO of my business. Let me say that the story is nonsense and I absolutely refute the picture they paint of Paul and my business."
In the wake of Hunt agreeing to step down from his role as CEO, an unnamed former senior figure at the Jamie Oliver group has told The Times that he was suprised Hunt had lasted so long at the company. He said: "I never thought he was an appropriate leader for a business like that. He had no background in food and had business failures and insider-trading on his CV. But also because of the way he dealt with people.”
Regarding Hunt's stepping down, the group released a statement saying: "Paul Hunt was appointed chief executive of Jamie Oliver Holdings in 2014 to stabilise and reposition the business, which he has done. He also successfully navigated the business through the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic."
"Following a strategic review, it was mutually agreed that the time is right to find a chief executive with global brand and technology expertise to lead the business into the next phase of its evolution."
In November, former staff at one of Oliver's restaurant's won a £200,000 compensation claim.
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