PUMA has lost both its Europe lead and its Cluster Central lead within a month, and the Chief Commercial Officer seat above them remains open. The replacement structure pairs an external wholesale specialist with a long-serving internal operator under the CEO direct line.
PUMA has appointed Fokko de Rooij as Managing Director Europe, effective Oct. 1, and promoted Daniel Pustina to Managing Director Cluster Central with immediate effect. Both roles were vacant: de Rooij succeeds Javier Ortega and Pustina succeeds Bas van den Bemt, both of whom left the company this month.
De Rooij reports to CEO Arthur Hoeld, who is covering the Chief Commercial Officer duties himself until that post is filled. The appointment therefore places Europe directly under the CEO’s own commercial line rather than under a permanent CCO.
He arrives from a long run at Nike, where senior roles spanned EMEA, China and the global organization. As VP EMEA Sales he took the wholesale business back into growth through a commercial reset, according to PUMA. He left Nike in 2025 and has since advised chief executives and boards across sporting goods and fashion.
The hire reads as a wholesale fix. PUMA’s European account base is where a reset would show first, and de Rooij’s record is in exactly that channel.
Pustina takes DACH, Benelux, Eastern Europe and Ukraine. He has been with PUMA since 2020, most recently as Managing Director Oceania in Melbourne, and held DACH and Central Europe leadership roles before that. He reports to de Rooij.
The other two clusters are unchanged. Christophe Cance keeps South (France, Italy, Spain and Portugal) and Lucynda Davies keeps North (the UK and Ireland, the Nordics). Both will also report to de Rooij, consolidating four cluster leads under a single regional head.
