Dirk Van den Berghe, former CEO of Delhaize, leaves Walmart

Dirk Van den Berghe, CEO of Walmart Asia and former CEO of Delhaize, has left the world’s largest retail group and is returning to Europe.

20 years as CEO

Walmart has confirmed the news: “After six years at Walmart, Dirk Van den Berghe, executive vice president, global sourcing and regional CEO of Asia, has decided to retire in March 2021 to spend more time with family in Europe”, a spokesperson told Fashion Network.

From 2014 onwards, Van den Berghe held various positions at Walmart: first as regional CEO for Canada, then as top executive of Walmart China and finally as CEO for the Asian market. It was partly under his leadership that Walmart took a majority stake in Flipkart, the leading e-commerce platform in India, in 2018. Along with a number of other top executives from the American company, Van den Berghe has also sat on Flipkart’s board of directors since then. It is expected he will also resign from that position.

The Belgian has previously worked at Unilever and Delhaize, where he held the position of CEO of Delhaize Belgium between 2012 and 2014. As such, he presided over Delhaize’s attempts to change its focus towards improving its price image. In his 36-year long career, Van den Berghe has held the title of CEO for a total of twenty years.