{"id":869263,"date":"2026-08-06T16:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T14:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=869263"},"modified":"2026-08-06T16:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T14:53:16","slug":"end-of-a-15-year-era-for-pick-n-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/869263\/end-of-a-15-year-era-for-pick-n-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"End of a 15-year era for Pick n Pay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pick n Pay has confirmed the retirement of its chief financial officer, Lerena Oliver, following the conclusion of the group’s AGM held on Thursday (6 August).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group announced Oliver’s retirement at the end of 2025, noting at the time that Tina Rookledge would succeed her in the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Board thanked Olivier for her significant contribution to the company and the Pick n Pay Group during her tenure, and wished her well in her future endeavours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olivier took up the role of CFO in September 2019, succeeding former finance boss Bakar Jakoet, who had held the position for 34 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She had previously served as the head of Group Financial Reporting at Pick n Pay since 2011, marking her exit this week as the end of 15 years at the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was previously at competing retailer, Shoprite, for a decade, serving as a group financial accountant between 2001 and 2011, having started out as an audit manager at PwC between 1998 and 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olivier led the finance function during a turbulent time at the group. This included a significant transitional period where the Ackerman family bowed out of its controlling role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also worked under different CEOs, including Richard Brasher, Pieter Boone, and, most recently, Sean Summers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following disastrous strategies under former CEOs, Summers and Olivier have had the difficult task of turning Pick n Pay’s fortunes around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These efforts have now started to bear fruit for the company, with a slow but progressive strategy now in place, narrowing losses and rightsizing the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olivier leaves the company on firmer footing, paving the way for her successor to continue the path forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rookledge, who is CFO effective 6 August, joined the Group with effect from 1 February 2026, as part of the group’s planned leadership succession process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is a qualified Chartered Accountant (South Africa) and has extensive financial, operational and leadership experience, gained across large listed and multinational organisations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The board is confident that Ms Rookledge’s experience and leadership will support the continued execution of the group’s strategic priorities and the ongoing turnaround and long-term growth of the business,” Pick n Pay said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lerena Oliver has retired as Pick n Pay CFO after 15 years at the company.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pick n Pay has confirmed the retirement of its chief financial officer, Lerena Oliver, following the conclusion of the group’s AGM held on Thursday (6 August).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":856823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2085378843251007647","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2168532877300445","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17984844618045219","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[4067],"class_list":["post-869263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-pick-n-pay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869289,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869263\/revisions\/869289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}