adidas-Salomon's North American subsidiary in Portland, Oregon, announced a number of key organizational changes to strengthen its sales and marketing activities in the United States.
Joe Fields will join adidas America as Senior Vice President of Sales and Retail, reporting to Erich Stamminger, adidas- Salomon Executive Board Member responsible for Global Marketing and President and Chief Executive Officer of adidas America. Tim Joyce, who currently holds this position, has decided to leave the company to pursue other interests.
Joe Fields comes to adidas with over 11 years of industry-related experience, most recently with the Pentland Group where he served as President of Speedo International. While there, he led and managed the global brand with over $600 million in sales, with responsibility for overseeing 500 employees in nine countries. At Pentland, he also served as President of Pentland USA, with responsibility for all Pentland owned sports and fashion businesses in North America, which included such brands as Mitre, Pony, and Ellesse.
Separately, John Kawaja has agreed to transition out of his role as Head of Marketing in North America into a new senior management position within the adidas-Salomon Group, eliminating the redundancy in marketing leadership from Erich Stamminger's appointment last year, which coincided with relocating the Group's Global Marketing function from Germany to Portland. He will continue to report to Erich Stamminger and, presently, is leading several special projects within the Group before transitioning to his new role.
Erich Stamminger commented on today's organizational changes: “We are extremely pleased to have attracted someone of Joe's caliber and industry experience to adidas, and with the continued progress we are making to reshape our business here in North America. We are grateful to John for agreeing to play a significant and continuing leadership role within the adidas-Salomon Group, as well as to Tim for the contributions he has made during his tenure. While we use this year in North America to prepare and position ourselves for future growth, we believe today's changes are strong first steps towards an overall improved U.S. business.”
