JD Sports Announces Régis Schultz as New CEO
2022.08.02 15:14
By Scott Kanowsky
Investing.com — London-listed shares in JD Sports Fashion PLC (LON:JD) fell on Tuesday after the sports and fashion retailer announced that Régis Schultz will take over as its new chief executive officer.
Schultz will join the company in September, which will then start a short transition period that will see interim CEO Kath Smith handover her duties and resume her former role as senior independent director, JD Sports said in a statement.
Prior to joining the firm, Schultz served as chief executive at France’s Monoprix, where he signed partnerships with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Ocado (LON:OCDO) as part of a push to enhance the grocer’s digital offerings.
Schultz is currently president of the retail division at the Al-Futtaim Group, where he has worked since 2019. The Dubai-based conglomerate operates popular stores like Zara and Ikea in the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa.
“He is a retailer through and through with experience across all types of retail formats. He has also delivered transformational change through digitization in a number of his roles,” said Andrew Higginson, non-executive chair at JD Sports, in a statement.
The move comes after JD Sports sold its Footasylum sports store division to German investment firm Aurelius earlier this week at a hefty loss compared to its original purchase of £90.1M in 2019. The agreement brought an end to a long-running scandal over the initial purchase of Footasylum that eventually led to the ouster of JD Sports’ chair.
