The European Outdoor Group (EOG) elected John Jansen of Keen Europe as its new president and Jean-Marc Pambet of Salomon as its vice president at its summer meeting and extraordinary assembly Tuesday on the eve of the Outdoor trade show in Friedrichshafen, Germany.

During the meeting:

  • EOG President Rolf Schmid and Vice President Bernd Kullmann stepped down with immediate effect following faster progress in achieving the key objectives they agreed ahead of the transition to a new leadership team.  The EOG paid tribute to both men with presentations and a standing ovation during the meeting.
  • Three new board members were elected, including Rainer Angstl of Sport Schuster, the first EOG retail member to be elected, Antje von Dewitz of Vaude and Stefan Merkt of the Mammut Group.
  • The EOG welcomed two more new members from the retail sector – AS Adventure Group BV and Globetrotter.
  • The board was updated on progress of  two major EOG projects: State of Trade 2014, the flagship market research program, and  ‘It’s Great Out There,’ a new initiative to promote outdoor participation to the general public, being launched during OutDoor. Last week, EOG reported that it was named an official partner of the first European Week of Sport (EWoS), which will run from September 7 to 13. Outdoor will be one of four key focus topics during the week and Austrian mountaineer Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner has been appointed as an official EWoS Ambassador, alongside soccer players Clarence Seedorf and Steven Gerrard and Olympic medal winning skeet shooter Danka Barteková.

Other highlights during the EOG Summer Meeting were keynote speaker Alan AtKisson, a world renowned expert on sustainability and its role in business, and an update on plans for the 2015 European Outdoor Summit in Sheffield, given by Outdoor Industries Association chief executive Andrew Denton on plans for the 2015 European Outdoor Summit in Sheffield.

The European Outdoor Group was founded in 2003 by 19 of the world’s largest outdoor companies, all of which recognized the need for a cohesive, cross border approach to representation of the outdoor sector. In a world of increasing internationalization, legislation, environment, the media and trade are all now multinational issues. The combined strength of the EOG’s member brands (75 full members and 10 associate members) provides the group with an extremely powerful force to represent the European outdoor industry in a constructive and positive manner.