Time to move on

Almost 16 years ago I was a young student searching for a way to still keep sport at the center of his life. Exactly on the same day I applied for internship roles at both Nike and adidas as both brands anyhow did convoy and inspire me my entire life. When Nike in Sept 2006 offered me a role, I seized the opportunity and probably was the luckiest man on earth on this day.

Last week, more than 15 years later, I decided to leave Nike. I couldn't be more grateful for my journey with the Swoosh. Grateful for:

• all the great people I could work with (it rarely felt like work) and of which many I can call friends today
• many inspirational leaders that helped me to become a better leader on my own
• for the retail organizations I could serve, deal with and provide advice, but also helped me to understand the industry also from their perspective
• and last but definitely not least also for some meetings & moments that I will never forget my entire life. To just name a few: FFM X-Mas party 2010 where I received the AGS JDI-Award, Western Europe Fall GTM-Meeting in New Orleans where hundreds of "INTERSPORT Stormtroopers" followed Darth Vaider (aka Ralf F?ssler) through the streets of New Orleans or the AGS Summer party where we camped in the black forest and under the lead of Kilian Breuer built a stage and a small village to host the entire NIKE AGS team and surprised everyone with a "private" Afrob & Freundeskreis concert.

When I started my conversations with adidas a couple of weeks ago, I very soon realized that this could really lead to a potential job change (which was different to prior interview experiences). In all following conversations in the past weeks with both Nike and adidas, I felt from all involved parties a maximum level of respect towards me as a person (for both my achievements in the past but also my future perspectives) but also for the opportunity the respective opposite side did illustrate.

For me the key criteria in such moments is always the perspective (whether it is from a private and/or business pov). In the end I came to the conclusion that adidas can offer me the best perspective and hence I took the decision to leave Nike and accept the role as Senior Director Sales at adidas.

Since the announcement on my decision went out last week Wednesday, I have been overwhelmed with many nice messages & calls, wishing me all the best for my private and professional future. I absolutely don't take these positive reactions as granted and wanted to thank everyone for this, you really touched my heart.

It's definitely tough and emotional to close a chapter but I'm also absolutely thrilled and energized to start the new one in October...