JD Sports Fashion PLC (LSE:JD.) confirmed former B&Q executive Régis Schultz was named its new chief executive officer after the sportswear company's long-term boss Peter Cowgill stepped down earlier this year.
Schultz will take over from interim CEO Kath Smith, a former Adidas executive, in September, at which point Smith will resume her former role as senior independent director on the board, the sportswear company said in a statement.
Schultz joins from Al-Futtaim Group, a Dubai-based conglomerate, where he has been president of retail since 2019.
He has more than a decade's experience as CEO of retail businesses, including Monoprix, the French city-centre food and fashion retailer.
He spent many years at Kingfisher PLC (LSE:KGF), where he was chief financial officer and chief operating officer at the Castorama and COO at B&Q.
Cowgill’s departure in May followed a review of JD’s internal governance, where it decided to speed up the separation of the roles of chair and CEO.
Yesterday, the company announced that it is selling Footasylum to German asset management firm Aurelius Group for £37.5mln after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked JD's acquisition of Footasylum last year.
“Régis brings exactly the characteristics we were looking for. He is a retailer through and through with experience across all types of retail formats,” said JD Sports chair Andrew Higginson, who joined the company in July.
“He has also delivered transformational change through digitisation in a number of his roles. Finally, he has significant international experience which will be very important as he works with myself and our senior team to execute on our growth strategy."
Schultz added: "JD has consistently proven itself to be one of the most successful operators of multi-brand retail formats in the world. We are committed to going deeper in the international development of our brands applying our experience and executional expertise and further enhancing our market leading multi-channel customer experience."