The Supervisory Board of Adidas AG has appointed Thomas Rabe, shown below right, chief executive officer of Bertelsmann, as chairman of the company’s Supervisory Board. He will succeed Igor Landau, whose Supervisory Board mandate expired after 16 years at the end of the Annual General Meeting on August 11, 2020.

Rabe has been a member of the Adidas AG Supervisory Board since May 9, 2019 and Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board at the same time. He was appointed to the Executive Board of Bertelsmann, a global media, services and education company, as Chief Financial Officer in 2006. He has been CEO of Bertelsmann since 2012.

Rabe said: “I am very much looking forward to the task of accompanying Adidas as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. I am aware that this office entails a high degree of responsibility which I will gladly take on in the interests of shareholders, customers, consumers, employees, and partners. I would like to thank Igor Landau, also on behalf of the entire Supervisory Board, for his extremely successful work. He has rendered great service to the company.”

In addition, Bodo Uebber will take over as Chairman of the Audit Committee from Herbert Kauffmann. Herbert Kauffmann will remain on the Supervisory Board until the 2021 Annual General Meeting. Ian Gallienne has been appointed as the new additional Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

The shareholders elected Christian Klein, CEO of SAP SE, to the Supervisory Board. He was appointed to the SAP Executive Board as Chief Operating Officer in 2018. Christian Klein had been Co-CEO of SAP SE since October 2019 and has been the sole CEO of SAP SE since April 2020.

In addition, the Supervisory Board members announced that they would waive 30 percent of their remuneration for the current financial year due to the coronavirus. Instead, the money will be donated to SOS Children’s Villages, among others.

Photos courtesy Adidas AG