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P_54 CAtch up | # 02_April 2013
business P _55
Coming
Back
to Score
IT
was a hard decision for him to make,
he said. “Pandora is a great business
which is performing well, but the
sports industry has always been a major part of
my life, and my role at PUMA will also allow my
family to remain in Germany.” After just one and
a half years as the CEO of Danish jewellery company
Pandora, Björn Gulden decided to follow
his passion and return to the Sports business by
taking the helm at PUMA.
Lucky us! With Björn Gulden, PUMA has gained
an experienced sports industry expert, who has
proven his leadership qualities and know-how in
managing sports and footwear brands throughout
his professional career of 20 years. The Norwegian
knows his stuff when it comes to fashion
and sports: in the 90s he spent 6 years at Adidas,
Björn Gulden
PUMA’s New CEO
The ex-football professional is familiar with PUMA’s home turf: He used to
play for the German Bundesliga club 1. FC Nürnberg and spent quite some
years with our neighbours across the road in Herzogenaurach. He knows
the sports industry inside out and is an expert in footwear retailing. PUMA
could not have hoped for a better fit to get back on track.
being responsible for Apparel and Accessories
as Senior Vice President, and he was part of the
management team that oversaw Adidas’ stock
market launch. Adidas insiders, who know him
from his time back in Herzogenaurach, called
us fortunate. “This is a truly friendly chap and it
was a pleasure to work with him,” said one longstanding
Adidas employee, who remembers Gulden
well.
“Very sympathetic,” is also what Gerd Schmelzer,
President of the 1. FC Nürnberg football club
in the 80s called Gulden. He was an enormous
football talent, but several injuries were obstacles
on his career path, Schmelzer said. After
Gulden played four matches for the club in the
season of 1984/ 1985, a knee injury finally made
him return to Norway where he studied Business
1. Signing with the 1.FCN in the eighties. Now he's
coming back to the area
2. The new CEO at Tuesday's Townhall Meeting
3. Björn Gulden with Chairman Jean-François
Palus (left)
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2
3
and Administration. Two years later, he also obtained
an MBA from the Babson Graduate School
of Business in Boston.
In 1999 Gulden left Adidas and moved back to
his home country Norway to work for outdoor
apparel company Helly Hansen, where he headed
Product, Marketing and Sourcing. In 2000,
however, he joined Deichmann, Europe’s largest
footwear retailer, as General Manager and
Director, where he headed the US-subsidiaries
Rack Room Shoes and Off Broadway Shoes as
CEO and President.
There is no doubt that Gulden’s international
experience and extensive knowledge of the footwear
business as well as the sporting goods industry
will benefit PUMA in the current situation,
where we need to get back to profitable growth.
He knows the products and the competition very
well, is familiar with the PUMA brand and aware
of what it takes to succeed in the current competitive
markets.
The 47-year old, who speaks Norwegian, English
and German, is quite keen himself to join us: “I
am honoured and look forward to taking on the
position as CEO of PUMA, one of the industry’s
most exciting and powerful brands,” he said.
“PUMA enjoys an enormous potential – both in
the Performance and in the Lifestyle markets,
and I am eager to help unlock this potential and
further grow the company in the years to come.”
And the Zurich-born has proven that he can do
it: Under Gulden’s one-year tenure, Pandora saw
its stocks rise by 200 percent.
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