Carrefour, a French retail giant, welcomes Pierre Bouchut as its new CFO in May. He replaces Eric Reiss, who will move to Brazil to take control of the region’s hypermarkets division. Bouchut joins from industrial group Schneider-Electric, and he also served previously as both CFO and CEO at Casino, Carrefour’s fierce rival.
Swiss watchmaker marked the end of an era with the announcement that Edgar Geiser will step down as CFO this year. He joined the company in 1978 and spent the last 18 years as finance chief. His replacement is Thierry Kenel, CFO for the past five years of Breguet, Swatch’s luxury division. At a press conference this week, Geiser told journalists, “In two days I will be 63 and I would like to do something different.”
Italian clothes group Benetton named Alberto Nathansohn as its new finance chief. He joins from luxury goods firm Bulgari, where he was CFO for the past three years. At Bulgari, most financial responsibilities will transfer to Flavia Spena, head of HR, organization and IT. Emilio Foà, Benetton’s previous CFO, left the company last year to join Burberry.
Tidjane Thiam will be promoted from CFO to CEO at British insurer Prudential in October. He joined the company in March last year. A former government minister in the Ivory Coast, Thiam also previously worked for Aviva and McKinsey.
Schaeffler, a German automotive group struggling to digest the debt-laden takeover of Continental last year, named Klaus Rosenfeld as its new CFO. He joins from Dresdner Bank, where he ran the finance department since 2002. Schaeffler’s previous CFO, Thomas Hetmann, will leave the group. Meanwhile, Eric Strutz will take over financial duties at Dresdner on top of his CFO role at Commerzbank, which bought its German rival last year.
Jonathan Muir has been confirmed as CFO of TNK-BP, a Russian-British oil joint venture, after serving on an interim basis since August.