JD Sports names Régis Schultz as new CEO
Schultz has been president of Retail at Al-Futtaim Group, the Dubai-based conglomerate, since 2019
JD Sports Fashion Plc has appointed Régis Schultz as the company’s new CEO, effective September 2022 when interim CEO Kath Smith will undertake a full handover of duties, and Smith will then resume her former role as senior independent director on the board.
Schultz has a wealth of retail experience as CEO across categories such as home, fashion, electrical sporting goods and food. The retailer said he has a “strong” track record of effecting transformational change through digitisation, driving multi-channel growth strategies and working across international markets.
He will join from Al-Futtaim Group, the Dubai-based conglomerate which is a partner to many of the world’s “most high-profile” companies across automotive, retail, financial services, real estate and health sectors, and where he has been president of Retail since 2019.
The retail division has helped to launch and build brands including Zara, Ikea, Hugo Boss, M&S and Lacoste, and operates in the Middle East, Asia and North Africa.
Overall, Schultz has over a decade’s experience acting as chief executive of “major” retail businesses. Prior to joining Al-Futtaim, he was CEO of Monoprix, France’s city-centre food and fashion retailer that is part of Groupe Casino.
During this time, he launched and executed a new digital strategy, signed a partnership with Amazon, concluded the first international partnership with Ocado and concluded the acquisition of an online shoes’ pure player.
Andrew Higginson, non-executive chair of JD, said: “Régis brings exactly the characteristics we were looking for. He is a retailer through and through with experience across all types of retail formats. 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. We very much look forward to Régis joining us.”
Schultz added: “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. I am very excited to be joining the group and look forward to working with the team to deliver on the growth opportunities.”
