Stephan is an accomplished CEO with a strong track record of leading international companies across various sectors including fashion, beauty, pharmacy and healthcare services. His extensive experience in leading complex, multi-brand retail businesses globally and in EMEA made him the stand-out candidate in the search process.

Stephan served from 2018 to 2022 as CEO of GrandVision, the global leader in optical retail operating more than 7,400 stores in more than 40 countries worldwide under more than 33 different retail banners. He led GrandVision – owner of the Vision Express and Apollo Optik chains in Europe – until it was acquired by EssilorLuxottica in July 2022, delivering significant value for shareholders.

Prior to GrandVision, Stephan was President of Sephora EMEA on the Global Executive Committee, where he again improved profitability and increased revenue, while accelerating the beauty and cosmetics retailer’s omni-channel development. He is currently holding non-executive director roles at two major pan-European retail companies in the sector of beauty and apparel.

Andy has an extensive retail career, focused on the discount sector, having been Chief Executive Officer of Pepco Group until his retirement from the role in January 2022. Prior to this, Andy was Chief Operating Officer and later Chief Executive Officer of Asda between 2005 and 2010, and Chair from 2011. Earlier in his career, Andy acted as corporate marketing director and managing director of George clothing.

Neil has extensive global experience in corporate restructurings, private equity and dispute resolution and wide international commercial board experience. He has held a number of chairman, director and committee positions in international organisations including Magma Fincorp India, Gategroup, Iceland Foods and Islandsbanki. Earlier in his career Neil helped to build the successful financial services arm of Apax Partners. He acted as a special advisor to the Senior Oversight Committee of the Asset Protection Scheme, operated by an executive arm of HM Treasury. Neil is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a former corporate finance partner at PwC and Deloitte.

Fred is an experienced senior financial executive who has served on the boards of numerous public and private UK and US companies. He has experience serving as board chair, audit committee chair and chair of a variety of transactional and other special committees.

Fred has significant financial leadership experience and has led the global finance functions of a series of private equity owned portfolio companies. Prior to this, Fred accrued 20 years of investment banking experience, primarily at Lehman Brothers and Smith Barney (where he was Managing Director, Head of European Investment Banking). He has extensive experience in acquisitions and divestitures and in global equity and debt capital markets. Fred was educated at Yale Law School (JD), Oxford University (MA, Jurisprudence) and Amherst College (BA, Economics).

Sean has extensive experience serving as a board director for large public and private companies across Europe and the US including currently at Aptiv plc and Tailored Brands, and previously at Howmet Aerospace, Alcoa, Formula One Holdings and iHeartMedia. Prior to his board director roles, he worked in investment banking for more than two decades, primarily at Goldman Sachs, where he was a partner and Head of the Financial Sponsors Group.

Paul is a Board member and senior advisor in the industrial, service and consumer/retail sectors. He has international experience in M&A, strategic assessment, organisational transformation and financial restructuring with a focus on the US and Europe. Paul has served and is serving as chairman or member of the audit, remuneration, governance and nomination committees for a number of companies for which he is a board member. Paul previously was a partner and member of the management committee of AEA Investors LP in AEA’s London office.

Grazyna has strong experience across government and business both in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe. At the start of her career, Grazyna spent four years at the Polish Ministry of the State Treasury, where she headed two different divisions. With a proven track record in some of Poland’s WIG20 companies, Grazyna brings 20 years’ experience working on C-level for Telekomunikacja Polska and PTK Centertel (now Orange Polska), PZU (on the supervisory board), PKN Orlen,  PGNiG, as well as  chief executive officer and president of the management board of Virgin Mobile Poland/CEE, following a period advising private companies and private equity funds. Grazyna is co-owner and CEO/Chairman of renowned e-commerce platforms Grupa Modne Zakupy and RentPlanet.

With extensive executive and non-executive experience, Brendan brings extensive operational, commercial and strategic expertise and insights to Pepco Group. He is a non-executive director at Victrex and Synthomer, where he is also senior independent director and chair of the remuneration committee, respectively. Brendan has more than 30 years’ experience in the oil and gas and the testing and inspection industries. He was a senior executive at Intertek Group having been chief executive officer of Moody International, which was acquired by Intertek in 2011. Brendan was managing director of Atos in the UK after spending more than 25 years with Schlumberger in senior international roles.

Stephan is an accomplished CEO with a strong track record of leading international companies across various sectors including fashion, beauty, pharmacy and healthcare services. His extensive experience in leading complex, multi-brand retail businesses globally and in EMEA made him the stand-out candidate in the search process.

Stephan served from 2018 to 2022 as CEO of GrandVision, the global leader in optical retail operating more than 7,400 stores in more than 40 countries worldwide under more than 33 different retail banners. He led GrandVision – owner of the Vision Express and Apollo Optik chains in Europe – until it was acquired by EssilorLuxottica in July 2022, delivering significant value for shareholders.

Prior to GrandVision, Stephan was President of Sephora EMEA on the Global Executive Committee, where he again improved profitability and increased revenue, while accelerating the beauty and cosmetics retailer’s omni-channel development. He is currently holding non-executive director roles at two major pan-European retail companies in the sector of beauty and apparel.

Willem Eelman joined Pepco Group as CFO in February 2025. He is a highly experienced European CFO with significant retailing experience across the continent, having started his career with Unilever, where he become CFO for Europe. In 2014 he joined C&A as CFO and Chief Transformation Officer, before taking on the role of CFO at GrandVision. Willem and I worked very closely there and he was a key member of the team delivering a transformation at pace.

Jorge joined Pepco Group as COO for Western Europe in October 2024. In his current role, he is responsible for leading operations in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Germany. He is a transformational retail specialist with international expertise in building and growing businesses in Europe, the USA, and Latin America.
Throughout his career, he has successfully held C-level positions at companies such as Douglas, Essilor Luxottica, and GrandVision. Jorge has demonstrated strong leadership and strategic vision in international expansion, turnarounds, and operational efficiency, contributing to significant business growth and profitability.

Viola joins us from Aldi Nord in Germany, which she joined in 2019. Her most recent role was as Managing Director – People & Culture International, where she successfully built up a new HR organisation. Viola has a successful track record and over two decades of senior HR experience. In her previous roles, she was Head of HR with Veolia in Germany for over six years and then spent more than eight years as CHRO with Aon.

Mark Elliott took up his current role as Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer in November 2023 having re-joined Pepco Group after a brief sabbatical. Prior to that he held a number of senior leadership roles over an 11-year period, including Managing Director of the Dealz business in Spain and Business Development Director for the Group looking after strategy, M&A, projects, and management of the corporate office. Before Pepco Group, Mark worked for Nectar – the customer loyalty programme of J Sainsbury Plc in the UK – and started his career at Bain & Company.

Marcin joined the Group in 2007 as Pepco Buying Director before becoming Managing Director of Dealz CEE in 2017. Marcin is responsible for launching and expanding Dealz in CEE. He has over 23 years’ experience in various retail functions, including store operations and buying and merchandising, having held the positions of Buying Director at Auchan and Store Director at Dixons prior to joining the Group.

Barry joined Poundland in 2016 as Trading Director and was promoted to Managing Director of Poundland in 2017. He has over 30 years’ experience within the retail sector, 20 of which were in the discount sector, having spent his early career at Kwik Save and having served most recently as Trading Director and then Marketing Director at Asda. Between these periods, he gained experience in partnership models with the Co-Operative Movement and in wholesale with Musgrave Retail Partners.

Pablo joins us from Avolta, the Swiss-based global travel retailer, with 5,500 outlets in over 75 countries, employing 36,000 people.  During his 14 years with Avolta, Pablo held senior leadership positions in Supply Chain, Retail Operations, Strategy and Business Development. For the past seven years, Pablo was Global CIO, responsible for defining and executing Avolta’s IT strategy to drive digital and technological transformation.

Ned Staple joined Pepco as Group General Counsel & Company Secretary in September 2023. He worked previously at NYSE listed online car retailer Cazoo and LSE listed property portal and data business ZPG Plc (formerly Zoopla). He led the legal and compliance functions of both businesses through their IPOs. He started his career in private practice in the corporate team of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, working on securities transactions, joint ventures and M&A across multiple sectors.