Adidas AG has appointed Kasper Rorsted as chief executive officer to succeed Herbert Hainer, charging the head of Dial soap maker Henkel AG & Co. with restoring growth to the German sportswear company.
Effective August 1, 2016, Kasper Rorsted (53) is appointed as ordinary member of the Executive Board and effective October 1, 2016 as CEO of adidas AG. As Kasper Rorsted will be able to assume his new office from this summer, Herbert Hainer has agreed to relinquish his Executive Board mandate effective September 30, 2016, prior to the expiry of his Executive Board service contract at the end of March 2017.
Kasper Rorsted is 53 years old, Danish-born and has headed up the German DAX company Henkel as CEO since 2008. Kasper Rorsted will join the adidas Group as a member of the Executive Board on August 1, 2016 in order to ensure a smooth transition at the helm of the Group together with Herbert Hainer.
Kasper Rorsted is the perfect candidate to succeed Herbert Hainer as CEO of adidas AG. He has extensive international management experience, having held positions with high-calibre companies such as Oracle, Compaq and Hewlett Packard. For eight years, Kasper Rorsted has very successfully headed up Henkel, a DAX company that just like the adidas Group is known for its growth, internationality and sustainability.
“This is a significant positive for Adidas and the investment case,” Graham Renwick, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, said in a note, describing Rorsted as “a perfect fit.”
