Director Health & Sustainability (Europe & Indonesia) at Ahold Delhaize
AHOLD DELHAIZE
Ahold Delhaize is one of the world’s largest food retail groups, a leader in supermarkets and e-commerce. Its 19 local brands serve more than 63 million shoppers each week in the United States, Europe and Indonesia. With 388 thousand associates working across 7,765 stores to serve local communities, it has a global reach.
From November 2020 to June 2025, I served as its in-house Director Health & Sustainability to accelerate the health & sustainability readiness, capability and performance of the brands in Europe and Indonesia and to drive cross-brand collaboration. Working with the global Health & Sustainability team, the regional team which I set up, and the brands in this region, I helped to define the ambition. Annually, I refined the strategy, plans and budgets to deliver on this shared ambition. In this role I was part of the Europe & Indonesia regional executive team of the CEO, and the global Sustainability Leadership Team.
Tangible impact that the region Europe & Indonesia realized included:
cutting Scope 1&2 emissions and food waste, while increasing food bank donations - all with between (well over) a quarter and a third;
backing newly created large solar and wind projects across Europe (for example, a Virtual Power Purchase Agreement in Spain), while planning more;
launching a protein transition target of 50% plant-based protein sales by 2030, while generally developing a broader Scope 3 action plan (including educational “Climate Hubs” for suppliers in each of our markets & many tangible local projects kicked off);
improving the region’s sales of own-brand products that are (relatively) healthier in their own respective product categories,
advancing company’s approach to nature & biodiversity, animal welfare, packaging, human rights, deforestation and other more areas.
In parallel, thanks to two incredibly strong brand-level leaders and their teams, two of the region’s largest brands in The Netherlands (Albert Heijn and bol) reached B Corp status.
Bringing others on board while building capabilities (where needed) was an essential part of my work. For example:
engaging the other executive team members on the regional leadership team, while ensuring clarity on the distributed but shared accountabilities within each brand-level leadership team;
guiding the brand-level H&S leaders, and their teams, across all 7 countries in the Europe & Indonesia region;
co-designing and joining a tailor-made Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) program for all Senior Vice President + executives;
setting up a cross-functional EU&I team within the region’s functional departments, for example: Finance, Procurement, Not-For-Resale;
shaping the company-wide learning program Healthy Future Academy;
initiating (and serving as a sponsor) three cohorts of the Positive Workplace Activism course;
developing and driving “Creatives for Change”, the company’s first-ever online academy and CMO-led peer network for creatives (e.g., colleagues from marketing, brand, communications) dedicated to inspiring healthier & more sustainable customer choices and behaviors.
“Paulette has built truly solid foundations for Ahold Delhaize in Europe & Indonesia. A legacy that will continue to grow and inspire. Paulette’s drive, creative spark, and unbeatable humour make her very pleasant to work with. Her passion and planet-first optimism have been a force for good every single day.”
“It was a pleasure to have Paulette on the Sustainability Leadership Team for Ahold Delhaize, where she represented the Europe & Indonesia business region. Paulette is a valued team player who knows what she is talking about. She leverages her expertise, passion, creativity and networks to mobilize the energy and oversee the development of initiatives and solutions in a multi-brand multi-country context, without shying away from the difficult dilemmas. And she does all that in a very pleasant and collegial way.”