Zaandam, The Netherlands, June 19, 2003 - The Ahold Supervisory Board today announced its proposal to nominate Hannu Ryöppönen as Chief Financial Officer. Ryöppönen will assume the position of Acting CFO, effective September 1, 2003. His appointment to the Corporate Executive Board will be proposed at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, which will be held at a date to be announced later this year. Dudley Eustace, currently interim CFO, will stay on until further notice.
Hannu Ryöppönen, 51, is a Finnish national who has lived abroad since 1977. He is currently based in London, England, and is Finance Director of Industri Kapital Group, a European private equity firm. Between 1998 and 1999 he was Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Ikano Asset Management in Luxembourg. From 1985 to 1998 he served as Executive Vice President Finance at IKEA Group. Earlier in his career he held various international executive positions at the Alfa Laval Group, primarily in the United States, Chemical Bank in the United States and the United Kingdom, and Hoechst in Finland.
In commenting on the nomination, Dudley Eustace said: 'After a rigorous international search conducted by Egon Zehnder International Management Consultants, we were fortunate to find exactly the right man for this challenging position.'
Anders Moberg, Acting President and CEO of Ahold, added, 'Having worked with Hannu in the past, I know he will bring to Ahold considerable expertise and experience in international finance. We need to hit the ground running and, on behalf of the Corporate Executive Board, we look forward to working together to rebuild confidence in Ahold.'
Hannu Ryöppönen is married to Elizabeth and together they have four children.
