UK’s JD Sports Names New CEO Amid Eventful Week

Retailer JD Sports has named its first permanent CEO since 2014, tapping Régis Schultz as the new company leader effective next month, according to a Tuesday (Aug. 2) press release.

Schultz’s selection came after what the sportswear company said in the release was “an extensive executive global search process.”

Schultz has experience at a United Kingdom-listed retail business and has worked in retail categories including home, fashion, electrical, sporting goods and food. His strengths include increasing digitization, leading omnichannel growth strategies and working across international markets, according to the release.

Most recently, Schultz was president of retail at Dubai-based conglomerate Al-Futtaim Group, a position he began in 2019. Before that, he was CEO of French food and fashion retailer Monoprix.

“JD has consistently proven itself to be one of the most successful operators of multi-brand retail formats in the world,” said Schultz in the release. “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.”

When Schultz joins the company, interim CEO Kath Smith will return to her role as senior independent director on the board, the release stated. Smith has been running JD Sports since longstanding executive chair Peter Cowgill was booted in May after 18 years in what the Financial Times reported was “a boardroom coup.”

Last month, JD Sports named Andy Higginson, former chairman of supermarket chain Wm Morrison, as nonexecutive chair of JD. Barry Bown was the company’s last CEO in 2014.

After a request from the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), JD Sports agreed Monday (Aug. 1) to sell sneaker seller Footasylum to German investment group Aurelius for 37.5 million pounds (about $46 million), less than half what it paid for the company in 2019.

In February, the CMA fined JD Sports and Footasylum $6 million for sharing commercially sensitive information.

Read more: CMA Says JD Sports, Footasylum Held Improper Meetings

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