Zaandam, The Netherlands, May 24, 2005 - Ahold today announced that CFO Hannu Ryöppönen has decided to accept a new position outside the company. He will remain Ahold CFO until August 31, 2005, and will become CFO and deputy to the CEO of Stora Enso as of September 1, 2005.
Stora Enso, a Finnish-Swedish publicly-listed company, is an integrated paper, packaging and forest products group. Mr. Ryöppönen will work from their International Office in London.
Ahold President and CEO Anders Moberg, commenting on the departure of his CFO, said: "I regret Hannu is leaving the company. His achievements during the Road to Recovery have been instrumental in getting the company back on track. However, I quite understand that this is an interesting opportunity for Hannu, and London will be his homebase again. I would like to thank Hannu for his considerable contribution to our company in difficult times, and wish him all the best in this new challenge."
Hannu Ryöppönen joined Ahold on July 1, 2003, at a time when our recovery strategy was still being developed. He has played a significant role in restoring the financial health of the company. Under his leadership, we completed our successful rights issue at the end of 2003 and were able to carry out our ambitious divestment program at high pace. As a consequence, the company's net debt position improved substantially and we were able to establish a new unsecured credit facility with much better terms and conditions.
The search for Hannu Ryöppönen's successor will start immediately.
