Managing Director & CEO

In his current role as Managing Director & CEO since 2016, he has been instrumental in steering METRO into newer geographies, building a robust culture of customer-centricity within the organization, and making it a profitable company.

An industry veteran with close to three decades of rich experience in wholesale, retail, general management, and marketing; Mr. Mediratta has worked with some of the leading Fortune 500 corporations such as Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Whirlpool and Yum! Brands.

Prior to heading the METRO Cash and Carry India, Mr. Mediratta was with Walmart US spear-heading multi-billion dollar businesses for the entire US market, first as Global Officer and Vice-President for Operations (Texas) and then as Global Officer and VP Merchandising for Fresh. Before taking up this global leadership assignment, Mr. Mediratta was the driving force behind successfully setting up Walmart’s Cash and Carry business in India and establishing 20 wholesale outlets in a record five years’ time till 2013. As the Chief Operating Officer of Walmart India, he built Walmart’s Cash and Carry India team overseeing key functions such as Buying, Merchandising, Operations, Sales, Business Development, Marketing, Logistics, Supply Chain, e-commerce, HR, Finance etc. He has been recognized globally by Walmart US for being instrumental in scripting the success story of Walmart’s Cash and Carry business in India.

Before his decade long stint at Walmart, Mr. Mediratta worked with Yum! Brand as the Chief Marketing Officer for South Asia for Pizza Hut, KFC, Tacobell and A&W in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Mauritius. He was instrumental in relaunching the brand KFC successfully in India. Prior to this, he was the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Whirlpool India and Marico India respectively. Mr. Mediratta started his career with Procter & Gamble (P&G) driving the successful brand launch of ‘Ariel’ detergent in 1991. In his decade long tenure at P&G, he worked in various challenging marketing and brand roles in India, Singapore and Bangkok.

Mr. Mediratta was rated amongst ‘25 Hottest Young Executives in India’ by Business Today in 2006; ‘Top 8 Marketers in India’ by The Economic Times in 2003; ‘50 most Powerful People in Media, Advertising and Marketing in India’ by PITCH in 2004. He was awarded ‘‘The Most Promising Business Leader of Asia 2020’ by The Economic Times at the 5th edition of Asian Business Leaders Conclave 2020. MD has been recognized as one of the Most Inspiring CEOs 2021 by The Economic Times at the ET CEO Conclave.

Mr. Mediratta is the Chair- FICCI Committee on Retail and Internal Trade since 2020 and was earlier the Co-Chair of Food Processing Committee, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Mr. Mediratta is a B. Tech graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He did his MBA from IIM- Calcutta and was part of the ‘Roll of Honour’ of the institute.

Director Offer Management and Supply Chain

Ms Calapa serves as Director – Offer Management and Supply Chain on the Executive Board of Directors at MCC India. Ms Calapa has over two decades of expertise in financial controllership, planning, analysis and audit, span leading blue chip financial services companies, consulting firms and IT sector. She earlier served a 3-year stint as MCC India’s Head of Controlling, and took a sabbatical for a year before re-joining the company as its Finance Director/CFO. Ms Calapa is a Chartered Accountant and a graduate of the Institute of Cost & Works Accountants of India.

Director Operations

Erik Heens is the Director Operations of METRO Cash & Carry India since March 2021. Erik has over 26 years of rich experience in cash & carry/ wholesale, sales and marketing roles working across geographies in Asia and Europe. 

Erik has been associated with the METRO group for over 17 years; Prior to India, he was the Director Operations of MAKRO Cash & Carry Netherlands. Erik stated his career at METRO in December 2004 as Director Operations in Training and took over the position of Senior Executive Project Manager New Store opening MCC China in May 2005. 

In November 2006, he transferred as Director Operations to MCC Morocco, followed by the same responsibility at MCC Vietnam in July 2009. He was appointed Director Food Service Distribution (FSD) METRO AG in September 2016, prior to taking over his position as Director Operations of MAKRO Cash & Carry Netherlands in July 2018.

Prior to METRO, he was with the Puratos group for almost 10 years in various sales and marketing role in Asia and Europe. With Puratos , Erik embarked on his Asian journey in 1995, which became his home more than Europe. Erik has lived more than 20 years in Asia.  

Erik did his Master’s in Business Administration from University of Mons, Belgium, and has a Master’s degree in Economics from University of Leuven, Belgium. Erik has a lovely family of three children and is married to Ina who is a musician. Erik loves travelling and is passionate about exploring different cultures. He is a fitness enthusiast and believes in healthy body and mind. He is a fanatic mountain biker and loves exploring nature and wildlife. 

Chief Financial Officer

With over two decades of experience, Matthias started his career with METRO Germany in Controlling in January 1996 and was appointed Senior Department Manager METRO Cash & Carry International in September 1998. He transferred to METRO Cash & Carry Morocco as Chief Financial Officer in November 2003, followed by the same position at METRO Cash & Carry Turkey in April 2007. Matthias assumed responsibility of Head of Corporate Controlling METRO Cash & Carry International in May 2009 and Head of Corporate Central Administration in December 2009. In July 2010 he was appointed Head of Group Controlling & Reporting METRO AG and Head of HQ & IT Controlling METRO AG in February 2013. Matthias changed as Chief Financial Officer to METRO Cash & Carry Bulgaria in June 2014, prior to taking over his position as Chief Financial Officer Hospitality Digital in January 2019. In April 2021, Matthias moved to India to join METRO Cash & Carry India as its Chief Financial Officer. 

Rakesh Ravindran is the Director - Human Resources for METRO India. He joined Metro India in June’2022.

Rakesh has been a HR practitioner for more than two decades, predominantly from the FMCG industry and brief HR stint with Technology industry (L&T Infotech). He joined METRO from Hindustan Unilever Limited; in his last assignment as Employee Experience Director - South Asia for driving the business linked HR strategy across South Asia. He brings experiences in service delivery, expertise and business partnering. Rakesh has successfully managed the centralisation of compensation & benefits nationally as a C&B partner, delivered HR transformation projects, delivered strategic results as the factory business partner and sales business partner. He has provided strategic HR & ER partnering to the Haldia Factory (West Bengal) and Pondicherry cluster. As Head of People Experience team for India and Nepal, he accelerated the progressive HR initiatives by establishing inhouse HR shared services with enhanced digital capability and led the people experience vertical for GSK (GlaxoSmithKline Consumer India) merger & integration.

Rakesh is an alumnus of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) Mumbai where he completed his Master’s degree in Human Resources.