JD Sports appoints new CEO

JD Sports Fashion Plc has announced that Régis Schultz has been appointed as its new Chief Executive Officer, following an extensive executive global search process.

It is expected that Régis will join JD in September at which time Kath Smith will undertake a full handover of her duties to Régis during a short transitionary period. Kath will then resume her former role as Senior Independent Director on the Board.

Régis brings with him a wealth of retail experience as CEO, including of a UK-listed retail business, and across retail categories including home, fashion, electrical sporting goods and food. In particular, 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 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 world-class brands, including Zara, IKEA, Hugo Boss, M&S and Lacoste and operates in Middle East, Asia and North Africa.

In addition, Régis has more than a decade’s experience acting as Chief Executive of major retail businesses. Prior to joining Al-Futtaim, he was CEO of Monoprix, France’s leading city-centre food and fashion retailer that is part of Groupe Casino. During his time there 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: “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.”