Tesco, the UK's largest grocery retailer, has announced the appointment of Guus Dekkers as its new chief technology officer, following the retirement of Edmond Mesrobian from the company.
Dekkers was most recently chief information officer at Airbus, but has also held a number of IT roles in Volkswagen, Johnson Controls Automotive Group and Siemens.
The supermarket giant says that his new role will involve strengthening the group's technology capabilities, and 'translate rapidly evolving technological and digital capabilities into innovative retail solutions'.
"[Dekkers] brings extremely strong expertise in driving large scale IT transformations, which will help us build on the progress we’ve been making to transform our business over the last three years," said Tesco Group CEO Dave Lewis.
"I’m looking forward to working with him, and want to thank Edmond for all that he has done to build our technology capability and enhance our security and resilience since 2015."
Dekkers will join Tesco on 16 April, reporting directly to Lewis.
Turnaround Plans
Tesco has made a number of significant changes to turn around its business in the last few years.
Earlier this month, the company completed its £4 billion takeover of wholesale group Booker, which has been in the works for over a year.
Along with the merger, Booker chief Charles Wilson was appointed as the new head of Tesco's retail operations in the UK and Ireland.
The supermarket operator is currently the fastest-growing retailer in the UK, according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel, with a leading market share of 27.9%.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Sarah Harford. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
