URW announces exec changes, Puechoultres to leave

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 24, 2023

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) has revealed changes to its Management Board “focused on preparing the group to harness future growth”.

The Westfield owner said Anne-Sophie Sancerre joins the board on 2 May as Chief Customer & Retail Officer, “with responsibility for gaining market share by driving footfall and consumer demand, generating new revenues, and growing URW’s leading retail operations”.

And Caroline Puechoultres, current Chief Customer Officer, will “leave the company in the coming months” with CEO Jean-Marie Tritant saying: “We thank Caroline for her leadership in evolving URW into a more customer- and brand-centric organisation and wish her success in her next chapter.”

Sancerre is “an experienced and respected leader at URW”, most recently as COO for Southern Europe. In her new role, she’ll “ensure we build the preeminent retail platform for the brands and retailers of the future by integrating all aspects of the customer experience, increasing revenues and accelerating the growth trajectory of our emerging media and digital capabilities”.

Meanwhile, Vincent Rouget will join the business and the board on 1 June as Chief Strategy & Investment Officer. His focus is “developing and executing the group’s strategy, and URW’s future investment roadmap”. 

He’s a real estate investment and asset management specialist “with a deep understanding of the European commercial real estate industry”. He’ll work closely with the CEO “to shape URW’s investment approach beyond deleveraging and explore new value-creating opportunities – bringing his skills, experience and network to support our long-term growth”.

Another change is Olivier Bossard, current Chief Investment Officer, transitioning to a new role as Special Advisor to the CEO, “continuing to support the US deleveraging programme and the group’s development pipeline”.

Tritant added: “Since the launch of our strategic plan in March 2022, we have successfully strengthened our core retail operations, established new revenue platforms, and continued to deliver our committed development pipeline with disciplined capex control. In 2022 we delivered strong financial results, completed our operational recovery and continued to make deleveraging progress. 

“Now is the time to build on this momentum to harness future growth and I am delighted to welcome Anne-Sophie and Vincent. Both are proven leaders who strengthen the board and set us on the path to long-term success.”