Born on April 6, 1963 in Mannheim, Germany, Jochen Zeitz is the CEO of the Sport & Lifestyle Group of PPR and Executive Chairman of PUMA SE after serving 18 years as Chairman and CEO at PUMA.

Zeitz is also a member of the board and Executive committee of PPR, a Board member of Wilderness Safaris and Chair of the Sustainability Committee, and has been a member of the Board of Directors of Harley-Davidson since 2007, recently also becoming the Chair of Harley-Davidson’s newly created sustainability committee.

Early Life

Studying in Germany, France, and the United States, Zeitz graduated from the European Business School in International Marketing and Finance.

Career

Zeitz began his professional career with Colgate-Palmolive in New York and Hamburg. Zeitz joined PUMA in 1990 and in 1993 was appointed Chairman and CEO becoming the youngest CEO in German history to head a public company at the age of 30. Zeitz then spearheaded the worldwide restructuring of PUMA, which was in financial difficulties at the time, and implemented a long-term development plan and managed to turn PUMA from a low priced, undesirable brand into one of the top 3 brands in the sporting good industry.

In 2008 Zeitz introduced PUMAVision as an umbrella concept to implement an ethical framework defined by the 4Key principles of being Fair, Honest, Positive and Creative as applied to all professional behavior, business procedures and relationships throughout and outside of PUMA. In May 2011 he announced PUMA’s Environmental Profit & Loss Account that puts a monetary value to a businesses use of ecosystem services across the entire supply chain. In October 2010, Zeitz was appointed Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at PPR and soon after launched PPR HOME, a new and holistic sustainability initiative across the global brands of the Group that operates four interconnected strands of Leadership, Ecology, Humanity and Creativity.

Philanthropy

In 2008 Zeitz founded the not-for-profit “Zeitz Foundation of Intercultural Ecosphere Safety” to support creative and innovative sustainable projects and solutions that balance conservation, community development, culture, and commerce (the “4Cs”) in a quadruple bottom line approach, promoting an inclusive, holistic paradigm of conservation that enhances livelihoods and fosters intercultural dialogue while building sustainable businesses.

Author

In 2010 Zeitz co-wrote and published “Prayer, Profit and Principles - Monk and Manager in dialogue” with Anselm Grün, a Benedictine monk. The book has been translated into 9 languages and covers topics such as: sustainability, the economy and prosperity, culture, values, success and responsibility.

Honours and awards

Zeitz has received the Strategist of the Year three times from the Financial Times. In 2004, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit of Germany. In 2009, Zeitz became Honorary Warden of Kenya by the Kenya Wildlife Service. In 2010, the German Sustainability Foundation gave Zeitz an award for Germany's most sustainable future strategies.

External links

• Board of Management - Website PUMA AG
• http://www.ppr.com/en/group/organisation/executive-committee/jochen-zeitz PPR
• http://www.ppr.com/en/commitments/ppr-home-long-run PPR HOME
• http://vision.puma.com/us/en/? PUMAVision
• Who is Who: Jochen Zeitz (in German)
• Zeitz Foundation for Intercultural Ecosphere Safety
• The Long Run
• http://www.zeitzfamily.org (Zeitz Family History in German)