Decathlon has announced the appointment of Barbara Martin Coppola as the group’s new CEO, starting in mid-March. The 45-year-old French and Spanish binational will take the place of Michel Aballea, who has held the helm of the world’s largest sporting goods retailer since 2015.
“The current good health of Decathlon and our strong ambitions encourage us to accelerate the transformation of our business model to better assert our position as a world leader in sport,” said Fabien Derville, chairman of Decathlon since the end of 2018. “We are convinced that Barbara will be able to lead this transformation while respecting our values,” he continued, referring in particular to te company’s mission of making sports accessible to more people.
The French-based company has been engaged lately in a big transformation on the digital front. Decathlon points out that Martin Coppola has a developed a strong digital and business background over the past 20 years, working and living in nine countries, and holding leading position in global companies such as Ikea, Google, YouTube, Samsung and Texas Instruments.
Ikea’s vertical business model is similar to that of Decathlon. Martin Coppola’s latest mission has been to lead the digital transformation of Ikea, based in Copenhagen, since April 2018. After studying at Harvard Business School and Insead, she worked for Texas Instruments in Germany, France, Japan and the U.S., and for Google in France and Silicon Valley. Among other responsibilities, she has served as global marketing manager for Samsung, as global head of product marketing for YouTube, and as chief marketing officer for GrubHub in Chicago.
Aballea has spent most of his working life with Decathlon. He launched Tribord, the company’s private label for water sports products, in 1996, followed by its outdoor brand, Quechua. After leading its private label business for ten years at the international level, he took charge of Decathlon’s new Indian subsidiary in 2007.
Aballea, who is now 54 years old, had already said that he was going to serve as CEO of Decathlon for only two terms, but he will stay with the group in connection with a new project that will be unveiled in June. Meanwhile, he has been appointed chairman of Agapes Restauration, a big French conglomerate that owns restaurants and catering services such as 3 Brasseurs, Flunch, Il Ristorante, Le Peitit Cuisinier, Salad & Co. and Pizza Paï.
