Feb 24 - British retailer Marks & Spencer has poached Jan Heere from Spanish fashion group Inditex to lead its drive for business overseas.

Marks & Spencer in London

The clothing, homewares and food retailer on Thursday named Heere as its new director of international, reporting to chief executive Marc Bolland. It said Heere, fluent in English, Spanish, French, Dutch and Russian, has worked for Inditex in a variety of international roles, most recently in Russia.

Last November Bolland set out plans to grow M&S' overseas business with a view to becoming a multi-channel international retailer by 2015, growing sales, excluding Ireland, from about 500 million pounds ($811 million) this year to 800 million to 1 billion by 2013-14.

Heere's appointment comes two weeks after M&S poached Laura Wade-Gery from supermarket group Tesco to head its internet business, underscoring Bolland's commitment to also grow sales online.

Shares in M&S were up 0.6 percent at 349 pence at 1037 GMT, valuing the business at about 5.55 billion pounds.

(Reporting by James Davey, editing by Sarah Young)