Stephan Borchert
SCHIPHOL, The Netherlands—Following the successful transition period after his initial arrival at the company on Jan. 15, the supervisory board of GrandVision N.V. (EURONEXT: GVNV), announced that at its upcoming meeting on Feb. 27 it intends to appoint Stephan Borchert as GrandVision’s new CEO, effective Feb. 28. As reported by VMAIL last September, Borchert succeeds Theo Kiesselbach who will retire from the GrandVision management board following the annual group meeting in April. GrandVision is one of the world’s largest optical retailers, operating leading optical retail banners in more than 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia. GrandVision serves its customers in over 7,000 stores including such groups as Grand Optical, Vision Express, Pearle Europe, Instrumentarium, Multiopticas, Synoptik and many others.

Borchert, 48, a German national, has in-depth retail experience with a variety of service oriented retailers. Most recently, he was EMEA president of Sephora, where he managed more than 1,000 locations in 23 countries.

He began his professional career at fashion retailer Peek & Cloppenburg and then became a partner at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. He went on to become president of Red Earth in Hong Kong and managing director of the international business of multinational cosmetics company Douglas, leading 750 retail locations in 18 countries. He then became a member of the executive board at Celesio, which included responsibility for over 2,200 company owned pharmacies in numerous countries.

In its announcement, the supervisory board of GrandVision N.V. said it “is pleased to have attracted such a broadly experienced international retail professional and is confident that its growth strategy will continue successfully with the combined experience of Stephan Borchert and the GrandVision leadership team.”