Adidas hired Egon Zehnder last February to head-hunt a new chief executive to take over the place of Herbert Hainer after his present contract expires in March 2017, according to Bloomberg. The 61-year-old Hainer has been running the group since 2001. Bloomberg quoted a couple of institutional shareholders of Adidas as preferring the appointment of an outsider to shake up the company and narrow the gap with Nike. The news agency mentioned Andrea Guerra, former CEO of Luxottica, as one of the managers who have been contacted about the post. Eric Liedtke, Adidas' global brand director, and Roland Auschel, its top sales czar, are still seen as the best placed internal candidates.

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