Zurich  - Adecco, the largest staffing company globally, announced Thursday it had appointed Patrick De Maeseneire as the new Chief Executive Officer to replace Dieter Scheiff.

De Maeseneire, a Belgian national, had worked for Adecco for four years until 2002 and he currently serves as CEO of Barry Callebaut, a cocoa and chocolate company.

Adecco took a 22 million euro loss in the final quarter of last year and its profits for 2008 fell 33 per cent to 495 million euros. Its revenues for the entire year fell by 5 per cent to 20 billion euros.

Last month, Scheiff said further losses were cut by "accelerated headcount reductions." (dpa)