Desigual strengthens management team

By

Bruno Joly

Published
Feb 17, 2016

Desigual seems to be looking for the right ingredients to foster its development, while its growth is losing momentum. Founder Thomas Meyer took charge of general management at the start of 2015, after Manell Jadraque's departure, which at the end of the year was followed by that of Manel Jimenez Otero, in charge of the supply chain. Meyer has now revised the directors' areas of responsibility. He therefore appointed a Chief Client Officer and a Chief Corporate Officer in charge of operations.

The former, Pierre Cuilleret, is well known in France: he was already a member of Desigual's board of directors from 2014, and will implement the group's go-to-market strategy, as well as looking after communications and marketing. Cuilleret is the founder of The Phone House. He also acted as President of Micromania and Vice-President of GamestopGroup, which in 2008 acquired Micromania. Since 2011 Cuilleret is a non-executive director at Dia, Carrefour's discount retail label, which is particularly well-established in Spain.

Alberto Ojinaga was appointed Desigual’s Chief Corporate Officer: he will manage the group's support functions, including resource management and operations. Ojinaga started his career in the automotive industry, at General Motors Europe and Opel Spain. He was then hired by the Planeta publishing and communications group, initially as CFO.

In 2005 he became Financial Control and Logistics Director at Caprabo, Spain's oldest supermarket company, before being appointed CEO in 2010.

In this role, the top manager led a transformation of the group's stores, allowing them to develop once more the traditional values of local convenience stores.