PUMA named Stefano Caroti (44) to take on responsibility for the new function of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) and will appoint him as a Member of the PUMA Board of Management as of August, 2008. In this new role, Stefano Caroti will be responsible for the wholesale and retail functions, as well as for PUMAs three regions.
Stefano Caroti previously held a number of senior executive positions at Nike in Sales, Product, Marketing and General Management. Most recently, Stefano was Vice President for EMEA Commerce at Nikes European headquarters in the Netherlands, where he was responsible for the entire wholesale and retail business in the EMEA region, managing a Euro 4 billion business.
Stefano Caroti is Italian, married and has two children. He graduated at Middlebury College in Vermont, USA und started his career in the sporting goods industry in 1985 in Germany.
In addition, as of January 1st, 2008 Antonio Bertone (35), currently Group Functional Director Brand and Marketing at PUMA, will be appointed as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Reiner Seiz (44), currently General Manager Global Sourcing and Logistics at PUMA, will be appointed as Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSO). In their new positions as Deputy Members of the Board of Management both of them will continue to be in charge of their current responsibilities.
Antonio Bertone started working for PUMAs product and marketing departments in 1994, and since then has become instrumental in the repositioning of the PUMA brand. His creative vision resulted in the introduction of many of PUMAs Sportlifestyle collections. Today, Antonio Bertone oversees PUMAs global brand and marketing initiatives.
Reiner Seiz joined PUMA in 1989 in the design and development department and took over his first sourcing assignments in 1993. Today Reiner Seiz is responsible for leading the PUMA World Cat sourcing organizations and with his excellent knowledge of the global sourcing market he managed to build a global sourcing structure and a network of suppliers.
Jochen Zeitz, Chairman and CEO: “We are delighted to welcome Stefano Caroti to the PUMA team. Stefano brings excellent international sales know-how and strong management skills to take on this newly created function as CCO within the Board of Management. With the announcement of Antonio Bertone and Reiner Seiz as Deputy Members of the Board of Management, two additional key functional areas are now well-represented in PUMAs top management team and will therefore support and strengthen the PUMA brand and company. All three will strongly contribute in supporting PUMAs global expansion strategy.”
Stefano Caroti, future member of the Board of Management: “I very much look forward to my appointment as Member of the Board of Management and will put in a lot of effort and investment into the new position to capitalize the major opportunities in front of us. I am excited to be working with the PUMA team and contribute to the continued growth of PUMA.”
With this expansion PUMA has successfully completed the re-organization of the Board of Management as part of PUMAs Phase IV strategy under the leadership of the Chairman and CEO Jochen Zeitz. The current function of the PUMA Group Executive Committee will be terminated.
