Bury-headquartered JD Sports has gone global to hire its new chief executive.
The retail giant has named a former boss at B&Q, who currently leads a Dubai-based conglomerate, to succeed Peter Cowgill stepped down quit suddenly in May.
Régis Schultz will take on the role in September "following an extensive executive global search process".
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He will succeed Kath Smith who has held the position on an interim basis since Mr Cowgill's departure. Mrs Smith will resume her former role as senior independent director on the board.
The new CEO will join from Al-Futtaim Group, the Dubai-based conglomerate which is 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 Middle East, Asia and North Africa.
Prior to joining Al-Futtaim, he was CEO of Monoprix, France's city-centre food and fashion retailer that is part of Groupe Casino.
He also served as chief financial officer, commercial director and chief operating officer at B&Q from 2005 to 2008.
Mr Schultz said: "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.
"I am very excited to be joining the group and look forward to working with the team to deliver on the growth opportunities."
The appointment comes after JD Sports announced it had agreed to sell Footasylum for just under £40m.
Non-executive chairman Andrew Higginson added: "The board has taken this opportunity to conduct a truly global search to find the right candidate to lead JD on the next stage in its development.
"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."
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