He joins from Al-Futtaim Group, the Dubai-based conglomerate that’s partner to many of the world’s most high-profile companies across automotive, retail, financial services, real estate and health, and where he has been President of Retail since 2019. 

The retail division has helped to launch and build brands including ZaraHugo BossM&SLacoste

He also has more than a decade’s experience leading major retail businesses. Prior to joining Al-Futtaim, he was CEO of Monoprixcity-centre food and fashion retailer that’s part of Groupe CasinoAmazon

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.”

And Schultz added: “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.”