Leon Lourens

Leon was appointed as the chief executive officer of Steinhoff Africa Retail (STAR) on 6 December 2017. He completed a Higher National Diploma in Human Resources in 1987 before attaining a BCom degree in Marketing (UNISA) in 1994. He joined PEP in 1990. In 2000 he joined the supermarket group Panda in the Middle East as head of operations before returning to PEP in 2002. He was appointed as operations director in 2004 and became managing director of PEPSA in 2011. In 2016, Leon was appointed as Group MD: Pepkor Africa and he became chief operating officer of STAR at its listing on 20 September 2017. He has more than 27 years’ experience in retail with most of it stemming from store operations in the discount sector of the market.