Galeria Kaufhof elects Donald Watros as new chairman

By

Rüdiger Oberschür

Published
Oct 2, 2015

One day after Hudson’s Bay’s successful acquisition of the German department store from Metro, Galeria Kaufhof announced the election of HBC International president Don Watros, as its new chairman.

Watros, who takes on the role immediately, said: "We are delighted to officially welcome our new colleagues at GALERIA Kaufhof Group into the HBC family.  We have great respect for the Company's heritage in the German and Belgian markets and enormous confidence in its successful future.  I look forward to working with the highly talented leadership team, led by Olivier Van den Bossche, to execute on our plans and take the GALERIA Kaufhof Group banners to a new level of growth and success."

The current president of Hudson’s Bay’s international unit will work closely with Galeria Kaufhof’s CEO, Olivier Van den Bossche, to dramatically enhance the department store's customer experience.

Before joining HDI, Watros served as Chief Operating Officer of Saks Fifth Avenue and worked for several years as managing director of retail operations for NRDC Equity Partners.

Nine other representatives of Hudson’s Bay were elected to the supervisory board, replacing the former Metro Group representatives.

Hudson’s Bay closed the €2.5 billion deal for Germany’s Galeria Kaufhof and its subsidirary Galeria Inno on Wednesday.