David Thomas has reportedly been named chief executive of Brandbank Group, after resigning from his post as CEO of David Jones in February.

Brandbank, which is owned by Solomon Lew’s son Peter Lew, owns the Seed and Thurley specialty fashion brands and is the local licence holder for French Connection and Nine West in Australia and New Zealand.

Thomas will reportedly start his new role in August, according to The Age, which first reported the news on Wednesday evening.

Thomas will become the second former David Jones CEO to join the Lew retail empire, with Mark McInnes having been appointed chief executive of Premier Investments in 2011.

Premier Investments owns the brands Smiggle, Portmans, Just Jeans, Peter Alexander, Jay Jays, Jacqui E and Dotti, and has a 10 per cent stake in Myer, and employs several former David Jones and Myer executives across its portfolio.

Thomas resigned from David Jones after leading the department store for 1.5 years. He was cleared of a discrimination complaint made against him by an employee last year, which the retailer said was unrelated to his departure.