Southern FM has appointed Nik Askaroff, the managing director of Eastbourne food company Cibus Group, as its chairman.

Mr Askaroff, 48, replaces Simon Caffyn who is standing down after nine years.

The father-of-four has lived in Sussex all his life.

He is the chief executive of EMC, a financial and management consultancy, a non-executive director of the Genesis Freight Forwarding Group and chairman of the board of directors at Sussex Enterprise and the Eastbourne Education and Business Partnership.

He said: "Simon Caffyn has done a fantastic job and I hope to continue his good work."

Wednesday April 21, 2004