Ahold Names Group CIO

Ahold has appointed Ben Wishart to the new position of group CIO, effective June 17. Reporting to CFO Jeff Carr, Wishart will be based at Ahold’s Corporate Center in the Netherlands.

“Technology is an increasingly critical element in ensuring the success of our ‘Reshaping Retail’ strategy,” said Carr, adding that Wishart (left) would “lead the next stage of Ahold’s journey as we are responding to a changing retail world, leveraging our scale and coordinating technology. Ben has significant retail experience and brings a strong combination of strategic leadership, business transformation, team-building capabilities and technology leadership skills to this new role.”

A British national, Wishart joins Amsterdam-based Ahold from U.K. food retailer Morrisons plc, where he was CIO. Wishart was also CIO at Whitbread plc, the U.K.’s top hospitality business and, before that, he worked at Tesco plc in various senior information management roles.