Ahold Delhaize announced that Pierre Bouchut, member of the Management Board and Chief Operating Officer Europe and Indonesia, will retire next year. Pierre will step down from the Management Board and Executive Committee as of January 1, 2018 and will remain available as an adviser and for specific initiatives until July 1, 2018. Pierre became COO Europe and Indonesia following the merger of Ahold and Delhaize Group last year and served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Delhaize Group since 2012. Wouter Kolk, Brand President of Albert Heijn, will assume the role of Chief Operating Officer Europe and Indonesia effective January 1, 2019. As a first step, he will join the Executive Committee as Chief Operating Officer the Netherlands and Belgium, effective September 11. He will be proposed for appointment to the Management Board at the 2018 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. The business segment Central and Southeastern Europe, and Indonesia will continue to report to Pierre until January and will then report to the CEO of Ahold Delhaize on an interim basis, until Wouter takes over in 2019. AholdDelhaize also announced Xavier Piesvaux will be appointed as the new Brand President for Delhaize Belgium and Luxembourg effective September 11. He will report to Wouter and is succeeding Denis Knoops after Ahold Delhaize and Denis agreed to separate. Xavier most recently was Senior Vice President for Walmart East Canada. Prior to that, he served as Brand President of Ahold Delhaize's Mega Image brand in Romania. During his tenure, he was instrumental in the development of the brand, helping Mega Image grow from 14 stores in 2006 to almost 500 when he left in 2015.