March 25 - The disgraced former chief of Australia's upmarket department store chain David Jones landed another high-profile job Friday less than a year after quitting amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

Former David Jones chief executive Mark McInnes (image: AFP)

Mark McInnes was appointed chief executive of Premier Retail, which owns Just Jeans, Jay Jays, Portmans, Jacqui E, and Peter Alexander with about 950 stores throughout Australia and New Zealand.

"In my previous role as CEO, I did make an error in judgement," McInnes told journalists after the announcement of his Aus$2 million ($2 million) a year appointment.

"But I owned up to the error of judgement and I apologised to all concerned."

McInnes resigned from David Jones last June after admitting behaving "in a manner unbecoming of a chief executive to a female staff member" at two company functions.

In October, the department store settled a sexual harassment case brought against him by the ex-staffer who had sought $36.5 million for allegedly enduring his unwelcome advances.

David Jones said the out-of-court settlement was worth Aus$850,000, including a contribution from McInnes.

According to reports, McInnes left David Jones with more than Aus$8.6 million in cash and shares.

Premier chairman Solomon Lew called McInnes one of Australia's most successful retailers, and declined to comment on "past events that did not involve Premier".

"It goes without saying that Premier and Just (Jeans) have long had high standards of workplace values and performance. This has always been and always will be important," Lew told reporters.