Business people :Jochen Zeitz, Puma tutelary figure, will go November 30

The third global sporting goods, Puma, owned by French group PPR, announced Monday starting November 30, the President of its Board of Directors, German Jochen Zeitz, who was a charismatic figure of the brand feline but which 'accounted for over executive functions. 

M. Zeitz, 49, had already left early October as Director General of Sport and Lifestyle division of PPR, and Director of the Sustainable Development of PPR, a decision that was announced in March. 

He remains a director of PPR and Chairman of the Sustainable Development Committee of the Board of the group. 

Jean-François Palus, Deputy CEO of PPR, which oversees the Sport and Lifestyle division, should be elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Puma at its next meeting on October 23. 

Mr. Zeitz has repeatedly stated desire to devote more time to his foundation activities and projects in the field of sustainable development. 

As CEO of Puma from 1993 to 2011, Mr. Zeitz was re-gilded image of the brand by creating another center of activity in addition to athletic performance, the "lifestyle" on the edge of fashion . 

Last year he transferred operational management to a young Puma group member, Franz Koch, 33, while becoming Chairman of the Board of Directors. 

But Puma is now in trouble: in July Franz Koch has lowered its annual performance targets and announced a restructuring of its operations.Koch wants renewed focus on sport at Puma to balance the activities of "lifestyle" highly developed in recent years. 

Mr. Zeitz had confided in September in an interview with the German weekly Manager Magazin that he would soon resign, while putting pressure on Mr. Koch to act: "We can not be satisfied with the evolution of Puma this year. " 

Puma will have to "clarify its products" to restore "as soon as possible" profitability ", said to turn in early October the Deputy CEO of PPR, Jean-François Palus.

( Source AFP)