In addition to her overall Board contribution, Tomlin will chair the company’s Corporate Responsibility Committee and sit on the Remuneration and Nomination Committees.
Tomlin was the HR director for the London 2012 Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, where she oversaw the creation and execution of the Games Maker volunteering programme.
She was previously group HR director at Marks & Spencer, HR director of Egg and sales and operations director of Prudential Direct.
‘Outstanding reputation’
Commenting on her appointment, Tomlin said: "Sainsbury has an outstanding reputation and – with 22M customers and 150,000 colleagues – touches so many areas of day-to-day life. I very much look forward to playing my part in the company’s future progress.”
David Tyler, Sainsbury’s chairman, said: "We're delighted to welcome Jean to our Board. Her unique experience and breadth of skills will be a great addition to the Board and we particularly look forward to her leadership of the Corporate Responsibility Committee which contributes significantly to the success of Sainsbury."