Birkenstock Holding plc has appointed Ivica Krolo as the Birkenstock Group’s chief financial officer (CFO), effective February 1, 2025. He will succeed Dr. Erik Massmann.
Birkenstock and Massmann have agreed that Massmann will step down as CFO as of January 31, 2025. He will actively support the handover process to ensure a seamless transition.
“On behalf of the board and our leadership team, I would like to thank Erik for his achievements and his willingness to support the handover,” said Oliver Reichert, CEO of Birkenstock Group. “In a moment when the role of the CFO was mission-critical when preparing for our IPO, Erik and his team made a valuable contribution to strengthening capital market readiness and communicating our financial performance to the investment community. I wish him all the best for his professional and personal future.”
The company said in a media release that Massmann and Krolo will jointly present its financial results for the first fiscal quarter 2025, ended December 31, 2024, during a conference call scheduled for Thursday, February 20.
The company confirmed in a statement that there are no planned changes in its goals or objectives and reiterated the guidance for FY 2025 as announced on December 18, 2024.
Krolo joins the Birkenstock Group from EMH Partners, a growth investment firm that invests in owner-managed technology companies, where he has served as a partner and CFO since 2015. He was a member of the firm’s Investment Advisory Committee and was responsible for finance, tax, legal and corporate administration.
Before EMH, Krolo was a certified public auditor and manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers, focused on auditing and advising listed and mid-sized companies. Before that, he was an audit manager and tax consultant at Mazars, a global professional services network that provides audit and assurance, tax, advisory, and consulting services.
Krolo holds a Master of Arts in Auditing, Finance, and Taxation from the Universities of Applied Sciences Münster and Osnabrück and qualified as a German Tax Advisor and Certified Public Auditor in 2013.
“We are excited to welcome Ivica to Birkenstock. He is an experienced finance executive with a deep understanding of the regulatory landscape in which we operate and with a significant operational and financial planning expertise,” offered Reichert. “With his pragmatic hands-on and people-first approach, Ivica is a great fit for our global Birkenstock family. I am looking forward to working with him and to further shaping the Global Finance function as a backbone for sustainable and profitable growth, and to writing the next chapter of our success story.”
Image courtesy Birkenstock, EMH Partners
