The outgoing CFO of publishing giant Pearson plc is to join fellow FTSE 100 company Smith & Nephew as a non-executive on the audit committee.

Robin Freestone was CFO at Pearson from 2006 and retired from the role at the beginning of August. He will also join the board of moneysupermarket.com where he will serve on the audit, risk, remuneration and nomination committees.

Freestone’s appointment came on the day Smith & Nephew reported positive results with first half underlying profits up 6% to $512m (£327m). Second quarter revenues were up 5%. Smith & Nephew has also been on the acquisition trail buying Russian medical distribution business DeOst.

In May comments from Credit Suisse on M&A in the medical helped fuel rumours of a potential bid for Smith& Nephew, possibly from a US buyer. Meanwhile performance at money supermarket.com has been bumper.

March saw the company report it had doubled profits to £53m with revenue up 10% to £248m. The company hit the news in May when founder Simon Nixon announced he was selling a 6.4% stake in the company, only to change his mind a day later.