LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the world’s biggest luxury goods group, said on Wednesday it had appointed former Procter & Gamble Co executive Antonio Belloni as its new managing director, Reuters reports.

Belloni, 47, replaces Myron Ullman, who will focus on the United States by becoming chief executive of U.S. arm LVMH Inc, the Paris-based company said.

Ullman’s move reflects “his desire, for health reasons, to reduce the significant amount of global travel his position has required,” LVMH said in a statement.

Belloni joined LVMH in June 2001 after a 22-year career at consumer goods company Procter & Gamble that included stints in Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, and the United States.

Ullman, who became LVMH managing director in 1999 after being responsible for the group’s selective retail and DFS duty free businesses, will remain a member of LVMH’s board of directors, Reuters reported.

He will also become vice chairman of the board of directors of LVMH’s holding company, Christian Dior SA, and will continue to serve as chairman of the board of De Beers LV, the recently formed diamond retailing joint venture between LVMH and South Africa’s De Beers, Reuters reported.

JCK