Ajax appoints Van Halst as interim CEO and board chairman

Ajax announced on Monday that Jan van Halst will step into the roles of CEO and chairman of the board in a provisional capacity effective September 4, 2023. This temporary assignment will hold until Alex Kroes is in a position to be officially appointed.

Ajax’s Supervisory Board previously appointed Alex Kroes as the chief executive and chairman of the board chairman. This appointment, however, is pending due to a one-year non-competition clause in Kroes's existing contract with AZ Alkmaar. “It is currently still unclear when that appointment can take effect,” the club stated on Monday.

In line with this temporary appointment, Van Halst has stepped down from his position as a non-executive director at Ajax, effective immediately. He joined the Supervisory Board of the Amsterdam club in May 2023. The board stated it hopes to welcome him back in a non-executive director role once the transitional period ends.

The club has been looking for a successor to Edwin van der Sar, who resigned as the CEO at Ajax in May after the men’s team finished in third place in the Eredivisie.