Jochen Zeitz

Jochen Zeitz (born April 6, 1963 in Mannheim ) is a German business manager and was chairman of the administrative board of Puma SE until 2012 . Since February 28, 2020, he has been CEO , Executive President and Acting Chairman of the Board of Harley-Davidson , Inc.

Career

After graduating from the Karl-Friedrich-Gymnasium in Mannheim , Zeitz first studied medicine in Florence for two semesters. After that, in 1982 he started studying business administration at the EBS Business School in Oestrich-Winkel. He had stays abroad at the University of Phoenix and in Paris . He finished his studies in 1987 with a focus on marketing and finance and began his professional career at the cosmetics company Colgate-Palmolive in New York City and Hamburg .

In 1988 Zeitz moved to Puma AG, where he was initially responsible for the planning and implementation of marketing strategies in the footwear area. From 1991 he was “Vice President International Marketing and Sales” responsible for positioning the company on the international market. In 1993 he was appointed CEO. At the age of 30, he was the youngest CEO of a listed German company. Six months later, the company was back in the black. Zeitz led Puma out of the crisis in the following years and transformed the once ailing sporting goods manufacturer into an internationally successful sports and lifestyle company. In July 2011 Zeitz gave up the post of Chief Executive Officer to Franz Koch and switched to the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of Puma AG .

He is a "connoisseur and admirer" of the African continent and African culture and speaks six foreign languages, including Swahili . He runs a farm in Kenya.

In addition to other awards, Zeitz received the “Strategist of the Year” award in 2004, 2005 and 2006 from the Financial Times Deutschland . In 2004 the Federal President awarded him the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany through the Bavarian Minister of the Interior .

In August 2007, Zeitz was appointed to the eleven-member Board of Directors of Harley-Davidson Inc. as the first European top manager . In September 2007, roughly two months after the French holding company PPR acquired Puma , Zeitz was appointed to the Executive Committee and, as a non-voting member, to the Board of Directors of PPR. In October 2007 Zeitz's contract as CEO of Puma AG was prematurely extended by five years until 2012. Zeitz's management board remuneration in 2007 amounted to 7.2 million euros.

In 2008 Zeitz introduced a corporate mission statement (“PUMAVision”) at Puma . Based on four defined corporate values ​​("4keys"), the company has set itself the goal of always acting fairly, honestly, positively and creatively in all matters. As part of PUMAVision, the company supports various initiatives to implement cleaner, greener, safer and more sustainable concepts and projects. In April 2010, Zeitz introduced a long-term sustainability program at Puma, under which the company aims to save 25% in CO ₂ , energy, water and waste throughout the company by 2015 .

In 2008 he founded the Zeitz Foundation of Intercultural Ecosphere Safety. The foundation supports innovative projects that harmonize environmental protection, social development, culture and trade and aim to promote intercultural dialogue . In October 2009 Zeitz was awarded the title "Honorable Warden of the Kenya Wildlife Service".

Together with the Benedictine monk Anselm Grün , he wrote the book God, Money and Conscience , published in 2010 , in which Zeitz calls on the economy to think more ecologically and propagates sustainable management.

Since October 2010 Zeitz has been Chief Sustainability Officer responsible for sustainability in the French parent company PPR. For Puma AG he accepted the German Sustainability Award 2010 in the category “Most Sustainable Future Strategy”. In 2010 he received the State Medal for special services to the Bavarian economy .

The Zeitz MOCAA in the port of Cape Town

In 2010 Zeitz was the top earner among German CEOs with a salary of 9.8 million euros.

Zeitz left Puma at the end of 2012 to focus on sustainability projects.

Jochen Zeitz has been showing his collection of contemporary African art at the Museum of Contemporary African Art in Cape Town since 2017 . The collection was curated by the South African Mark Coetzee , who has been purchasing African works of art for the former Puma manager for years. The museum was built in a former granary in Cape Town harbor on which a hotel was built.

Web links

• Who's Who: Jochen Zeitz
• Zeitz Foundation for Intercultural Ecosphere Safety

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.harley-davidson.com/us/en/about-us/hd-news/2020/harley-davidson-announces-leadership-changes.html
2. ↑ WirtschaftsWoche: Heads of Business: Jochen Zeitz ( Memento of the original from February 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ stern.de: Jochen Zeitz - The other life of the Puma man (May 5, 2007)
4. ↑ ^{a b} Rüdiger Köhn: The accolade for Jochen Zeitz - FAZ from October 18, 2010
5. ↑ Puma AG press release (August 6, 2007) ( Memento of the original from November 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Puma AG press release (September 3, 2007) ( Memento of the original from November 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Puma AG press release (October 9, 2007) ( Memento of the original from October 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ PUMA Annual Report 2007  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ WirtschaftsWoche: Sportartikel: Why Puma boss Zeitz is turning into an eco-messiah (April 28, 2010)
10. ↑ Puma AG: Overview of the sustainability reports
11. ↑ Glocalist.com: PUMA: Farewell to plastic and cardboard (October 4, 2010) ( Memento of the original from June 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
12. ↑ TouristikPresse: Jochen Zeitz presents his own foundation: A contribution to the preservation of ecospheres (November 1, 2009)
13. ↑ Kenya Wildlife Service: Jamaican Sprinter Usain Bolt Names and Adopts Kenyan Cheetah (November 3, 2009) ( Memento of the original from September 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
14. ↑ Manager meets Mönch plea against greed for profit - Spiegel from September 22, 2010
15. ↑ Puma AG press release (November 27, 2010)
16. ↑ Article on Spiegel Online on May 20, 2011
17. ↑ Ackermann 8.8; Martin Winterkorn 9.3 million euros
18. ↑ https://www.kapstadt.com/blog/18-kapstadt-mocca.html
19. ↑ https://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/eroeffnung-des-mocaa-in-kapstadt-speicher-der-erinnerung/20368132.html
20. ↑ http://www.reise-genuss.info/reiseziel/afrika.html