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Former David Jones CEO Ian Nairn has turned a new page.

Nairn has been appointed as chief executive of Swedish design brand Kikki.K.

Nairn abruptly resigned from David Jones in September, after less than 14 months with the department store.

Kikki.K founder Kristina Karlsson described him as a world-class candidate with significant local and international experience.

"Until late last year, Iain was the CEO of David Jones, and his significant brand experience in leading brands like Witchery, Mimco and the Country Road Group is so important to us, given our vision of being a world class, meaningful and enduring global business.

"He will no doubt thrive working with our wonderful team and unique, highly-engaged culture."

Nairn will take over from Russell Parker, who is leaving kikki.K to pursue other opportunities.

Karlsson said the new appointment follows a period of rapid expansion.

"In that phase, some of our key achievements have included: opening stores in Hong Kong and London; creating our 'Top 10 in The World' kikki.K Studio store concept at Chadstone Shopping Centre; building teams in new countries; growing our customers online in over 140 countries; being voted in Asia Pacific's 'Top 10 Great Places to Work'; and articulating and embedding our purpose and why kikki.K will deserve to be around and thriving in 100 years from now.

"Having completed that phase, we're now ready to accelerate our growth and development - and we now have more complex challenges and opportunities ahead – which has meant it's also the right time to bring in a CEO with deep international retail specific experience, and we've all agreed it's in line with the next phase for the brand.

"We have a huge amount of respect for Iain as a person and a retail leader, and are very excited he is joining us to carry on the exciting journey that all started when Kristina dreamed of starting her own little business years ago."

Today, Kikki.K has over 80 retail stores throughout Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and the UK, in addition to an online store.

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