By Mark Kleinman, City Editor
One of the executives who left Tesco in the wake of its £263m profits overstatement is to take on a senior role at TalkTalk, the home communications group.
Sky News has learnt that John Scouler, who left his role as food commercial director at Tesco in November following a period of suspension, will next month become TalkTalk's commercial director.
Mr Scouler's appointment, which was announced to TalkTalk's employees on Tuesday, makes him the first of the senior managers who left Tesco last autumn to re-emerge at another employer.
His arrival will come amid a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into the Tesco commercial scandal, although it is unclear whether Mr Scouler or his former colleagues will be required to give evidence as part of the inquiry.
In a statement issued in response to an enquiry from Sky News, TalkTalk said: "We are very pleased that John will be joining TalkTalk and to have someone with his consumer and retail expertise working for the business as we accelerate our quad-play growth."
Mr Scouler previously worked at United Biscuits and Kraft, both of which are major suppliers to Tesco.
Nine Tesco executives have been asked to step aside since last September, with at least four subsequently leaving the company, including Sean McCurley, a senior buyer in its convenience business.
In January, Tesco offloaded part of its Blinkbox on-demand content business to TalkTalk.
Last week, the supermarket giant named John Allan, the former chairman of Dixons Retail, as its next chairman despite competition for the role from Archie Norman, the chairman of ITV.
The SFO's criminal investigation is likely to take about a year to conclude, while the Groceries Code Adjudicator and the Financial Reporting Council are undertaking separate inquiries
Tesco suspended nine executives over the affair, four of whom have left the company, with most of the rest now reinstated.
The retailer's next chairman will have to grapple with the fallout from the supplier scandal as well as helping Dave Lewis, the new chief executive, navigate what analysts say is the toughest environment for big food retailers for many years.
Last month, Mr Lewis outlined proposals to relocate Tesco's head office, close dozens of stores and terminate its defined benefit pension scheme in an effort to save costs.
He also plans to sell a stake in Dunnhumby, its customer loyalty arm, and has announced a long-term price-cutting initiative across hundreds of core grocery items.
The debate over Tesco's decline was recently reignited when Sir Terry Leahy, the former chief executive, blamed his successor, Philip Clarke, for "a failure of leadership".
A series of profit warnings last year led to Mr Clarke being sacked, but analysts pointed out that some of Tesco's least successful initiatives in recent years, including its expansion into the US and China, had taken place during Sir Terry's tenure.
Earlier this month, Tesco said it would pay more than £2m in "liquidated damages" to Mr Clarke and Laurie McIlwee, its former finance director, after concluding that there was no legal basis for withholding the payments.
