The German sportswear giant is anchoring the leadership team that steered its recovery, extending its CEO and HR chief while lining up a major investor as the new face of board oversight and a prominent media executive as a new board member.
Adidas AG is reinforcing the leadership structure behind its three-year turnaround, extending the contract of Chief Executive Officer Bjørn Gulden through the end of 2030 and nominating long-standing board member Nassef Sawiris to take over as supervisory board chair following the company’s annual general meeting in May.
The supervisory board confirmed the decisions, which also include extending the mandate of Michelle Robertson, who oversees global human resources, people and culture, through December 2031.
Gulden at the helm through 2030
Gulden joined adidas as CEO on Jan. 1, 2023, inheriting a company in financial and reputational difficulty following the collapse of its Yeezy partnership with rapper Ye. Over the subsequent three years, he oversaw a significant operational and commercial recovery. Supervisory board chair Thomas Rabe credited Gulden’s industry experience and focus on quality growth with enabling the company to rebuild a foundation for sustainable revenue and profit expansion.
“Under his leadership, adidas has made great operational and financial progress in a challenging environment,” Rabe said, pointing to the contract extension as an expression of the board’s confidence in strategic continuity.
Robertson’s renewal reflects a similar logic. Since joining the executive board, she has led a restructuring of the global HR organization, advancing initiatives in talent development, performance culture, and employer branding. Her extension to 2031 positions her as a long-term architect of adidas’s people strategy during a period when talent competition across the sporting goods sector remains intense.
A major investor steps into the chair
The more consequential governance shift concerns the supervisory board itself. Rabe, who has chaired the board since August 2020, will step down when his term ends at the conclusion of the May 7 AGM in Fürth. His designated successor is Sawiris, a 65-year-old Egyptian-British billionaire and one of adidas’s most significant shareholders, whose investment vehicle NNS holds a substantial stake in the company.
Sawiris has served on the adidas supervisory board since June 2016 and was elevated to deputy chair in 2025. His move to the top of the board would mark a notable shift in its character: from professional governance via a media executive – Rabe is CEO of Bertelsmann – to active ownership oversight. Major shareholders taking board chairs is not uncommon in European corporate governance, but in adidas’s case it carries added weight given the company’s recent history of strategic turbulence.
Sawiris said he was “very much looking forward” to shaping the company’s next chapter alongside the executive team, singling out Gulden for specific praise.
New names in the boardroom
In addition to Sawiris’s re-election for a further three-year term, the supervisory board will propose the return of Ian Gallienne, Chair of the Board of Directors at Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, for another three years. A new face on the ballot is Mathias Döpfner, Chief Executive Officer of Axel Springer SE, who has led the German media group’s transformation from print publisher to digital company since 2002. Rabe described Döpfner as bringing relevant experience in brand building, digital transformation, and commercial growth to a board navigating an increasingly complex media and consumer environment.
The adidas AGM is scheduled for May 7, 2026, at the Stadthalle Fürth. Full documentation will be available on the company’s investor relations site from late March.
