Education
He received a bachelor"s degree from the Hotelschool The Hague, and then an Master of Business Administration at the University of Groningen.
entrepreneur merchant Businessperson
He received a bachelor"s degree from the Hotelschool The Hague, and then an Master of Business Administration at the University of Groningen.
Heineken
He began as a graduate at Amsterdam-based Heineken International Nevada, the third largest brewer in the world, in 1987. Bolland worked in various international management positions in Africa and Central Europe before joining the Heineken board in 2001. He became chief operating officer in 2005.
Bolland has been credited with both building and rolling out the Heineken brand internationally.
Morrisons
In September 2006, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the United Kingdom supermarket chain Morrisons. Morrisons had acquired Safeway in 2004 creating a 130,000 people strong retail conglomerate in the United Kingdom. The merger initially proved unsuccessful.
Bolland joined after five profit warnings with a brief to turn round the company. Under his guidance, Morrisons "..gained significant market share from rivals".
Marks & Spencer
In November 2009, it was announced that Bolland would become Chief Executive Officer of Marks & Spencer Group Public Limited Company. In May 2010, he took over from the then chairman & Chief Executive Officer Sir Stuart Rose.
Bolland launched a plan to grow M&South into an international multi-channel retailer. The Evening Standard named Bolland as one of "London"s 1000 most influential people" for 2010. During September 2011, he announced a new look store environment for M&South"s United Kingdom stores, with a plan to complete the roll out to the entire United Kingdom estate by mid-2013.
In 2011, M&South returned to France after a 10-year absence and also started the development of a new digital platform that was launched in February 2014.
In 2011, Bolland received an honorary doctorate from York Street John University. In 2014 Bolland was appointed as the Prince of Wales National Ambassador for Business in the Community and in February 2015 Bolland joind the board of Coca Cola as a Director.
In January 2016, it was announced that Bolland would be retiring as Chief Executive Officer of Marks and Spencer effective April 2016, and would be replaced by Steve Rowe.