IG Design Group plc announced the appointment of Gerald Kuehr as Chief Executive Officer Designate, effective from May 1, 2026. On July 1, 2026, Gerald will assume the role as Chief Executive Officer and Stewart Gilliland, who has led the Group as Interim Executive Chair, will revert to his role as Non-Executive Chair upon Gerald's appointment. Gerald has been working with Design Group in an advisory capacity to DG Europe since January 2026, during which time he has gained a deep understanding of the Group's strategic priorities, operations and customers, many of whom he has partnered with before.
Additionally, he has helped segments of the Group to refocus its energy on its core business whilst supporting the team in developing plans to secure new business. Gerald brings over 30 years of international leadership experience in blue chip consumer businesses. Most recently, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Partner in Pet Food (PPF) from 2020 to 2025, where he repositioned the business from an Eastern European, volume-driven private-label player into a pan-European category leader operating across ten markets with 3,000 employees.
During his tenure, he also completed five acquisitions. Prior to this, Gerald held senior global leadership roles at Unilever, most recently as Global Chief Customer Officer, where he was a member of the Global Leadership Team with responsibility for sales strategy, commercial excellence and customer development across 30 markets. He was previously an Associate Partner at Bain & Company and spent 14 years at Procter & Gamble, including as General Manager for Germany and Austria.
Gerald Christoph Kuehr, aged 58, has held the following directorships/partnerships in the past five years: Woof Investments SARL, Artemis Acquisitions Topco Limited, Partner in Pet Food Sweden AB, Doggy AB, Partner in Pet Food France SAS, PPF HoldCo B.V., Partner in Pet Food Group B.V., Partner in Pet Food NL B.V., Partner in Pet Food Poland, Partner in Pet Food Hungaria Kft, Kollmax Kft.
