Galeries Lafayette promotes Elsa Haddad to head of finance, strategy, and transformation

Galeries Lafayette CEO Arthur Lemoine is assembling his new senior executive team. A member of the founding family’s fifth generation, Lemoine was put in charge of the French department store group in summer, and is gradually picking his closest collaborators. In early November, Harold Israel was hired to spearhead the group’s specialised activities, and now the group has appointed Elsa Haddad as its new head of finance, strategy, and transformation.

Haddad, who will take up her new position on December 1, will be tasked with “supporting the overhaul of Galeries Lafayette by overseeing the priority aspects of the group’s transformation, as well as drawing up and monitoring its budget,” according to Galeries Lafayette. She replaces Matthieu Caloni, who has become CFO of the Galeries Lafayette group, working alongside Nicolas Houzé.

Haddad, 36, will report to CEO Arthur Lemoine and will join the group’s executive committee. She joined the group in 2018, after starting her business career at management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group. She moved to Galeries Lafayette as project manager within the Strategy and Transformation department, and was later named head of expansion and new projects, then head of digital and expansion at BHV Marais. Most recently, she was in charge of the beauty, home, and leisure categories within the product purchasing department. 

Galeries Lafayette currently operates 48 stores in France, 17 of which are directly owned, after the mid-November closures of the Marseilles branches, and 31 are franchised. The seven franchised stores operated by the SGM company are in the process of switching to the BHV chain, and the group will close the directly operated Galeries Lafayette branch at Rosny 2 in December. The group also has 11 international branches, between current and future ones, an e-shop, and an outlet store.