Odlo: Christophe Bezu new CEO

By

Bruno Joly

Published
Jun 22, 2015

Odlo has announced Christophe Bezu's appointment to the position of CEO. He joined the board of directors in January, working once again with Michel Perraudin, a former colleague at Adidas. He succeeds Jonas Ottosson, who after spending three years at the Odlo headquarters in Switzerland has decided to return to Sweden.

At 57 years old, Christope Bezu worked at Adidas for a number of years Adidas, where he was notably head of the Japanese subsidiary, managing director of the Asia-Pacific zone, and sales director. In 2011, he joined the Esprit management board, first as the head of the EMEA zone. He left Esprit at the end of March.

For its part, Odlo, historically a specialist in functional under garments that has grown and evolved over time with the goal of becoming a sports lifestyle brand, has decided to reduce its management board from 4 to 3 members. To assist Christophe Bezu, Are Høgberg, ex-Helly Hansen and Boston Consulting Group, will join the company in September as director of operation. A sales director is also currently being recruited. 

The company, a property of Norwegian investment firm Herkules, has also already announced that Thomas Spiess (in charge of production, the choice of suppliers and logistics) and Claes Broqvist (head of sales) will be leaving in the coming months as part of the restructuring plan.

Thomas Rast, the former financial director who left Odlo at the end of April and was replaced by Adrian Schürmann, who is now the head of the financial department and reports to the new director of operations. Adrian Schürmann, 44, has extensive experience that includes positions at Puma, Infront Sports & Media and Ernst & Young.