Real, a member of Metro AG, has announced a generation change at the top of its management. The company has also announced that its CFO, Henning Gieseke, and chief merchandise officer, Patrick Muller-Sarmiento, will take over the joint leadership of the management board. The current Chairman of the Management Board, Didier Fleury, will take on a new strategic role in the METRO GROUP and, as part of this function, will report directly to Olaf Koch, Chairman of the Management Board of METRO AG.

Real will consequently have four leaders instead of five: Henning Gieseke and Patrick Muller-Sarmiento will continue to operate in their respective current roles alongside their new roles as chairman of the Management Board. The management team will be completed by Personnel Director Jorg Kramer and Chief Operations Officer Frank Kretzschmar. Fleury, joined the METRO GROUP 2008 as Chairman of the Management Board at Real International.

In August 2012 he took over the Chairmanship of the Management Board of Real Deutschland. Henning Gieseke, has worked for METRO GROUP since 1997, and among various management roles he led the Investor Relations function from 2005 to 2010. In 2012 he took over the leadership of Corporate Controlling at METRO AG, before becoming CFO of Real in 2013.

Patrick Muller-Sarmiento, started his career in the coffee trade and has been a member of the Management Board of Real since October 2012. Prior to this he worked as a Management Consultant, focusing primarily on the Consumer Goods and Retail space, and in this role he contributed to various major transformational projects.