Tesco says former BP executive to join board as non-exec

LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) , Britain's biggest retailer, has beefed-up its board with the appointment of Byron Grote, a former BP chief finance officer, as a non-executive director from May 1.

The firm also said on Wednesday that non-executive director Gareth Bullock would retire from the main board on March 5 but remain on the board of Tesco Bank.

Tesco's board composition has changed dramatically in the wake of last year's four profit warnings and a 263 million pounds ($403 million) profit overstatement that sent its shares to a 14-year low and drew stinging criticism of the board's financial oversight.

Richard Broadbent will be succeeded as Tesco chairman by John Allan on March 1. A new chief executive, Dave Lewis, and finance director, Alan Stewart, were appointed last year.

Further non-executive changes were made last week.

Grote was BP's CFO from 2002 to 2011 and is also a former colleague of Lewis at Unilever (NYSE: UL - news) , having served as a non-exec there for nine years. ($1 = 0.6521 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton)