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

LONDON (Reuters) - Tesco , 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 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 , having served as a non-exec there for nine years. (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton)