Gilles Petit studied finance and accounting at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Reims. After beginning his professional career at Arthur Andersen, he joined the Promodès group in 1989. He served successively as store manager, director of methods and organization (from 1991 to 1993), commercial director (from 1993 to 1995), and then as operational director (from 1995 to 1999). Between 1999 and 2000, he was responsible for the general management of the Continent Hypermarkets. In 2001, he became Managing Director of Carrefour Belgium. He held this position until 2004, when he was named the Group’s Managing Director for other European countries. In 2005, he was appointed Managing Director of Carrefour Spain.On 23 January 2008, he was appointed to membership of the Management Board and Managing Director France.