Werner Grau, chief executive officer of the Uvex sports group, will be retiring after 33 years in the family business and leave the company at the end of July next year. From January 2012, Katharina Le Thierry will be assuming the post. Born in 1964, she has had a long management experience in the German, Austrian, Swiss, French, Benelux, Central and Northern European markets. She worked for several years as general manager for Germany and Central Europe at Puma. Before that, she was the managing director of LVMH for watches and jewelry and international marketing director at Henkel in Düsseldorf. Grau founded Alpina, a subsidiary of Uvex, in 1979 and took over the winter sports segment as chief executive officer for Uvex' international business in 1983. In 2002, he became CEO of the restructured Uvex Winter Holding. In the business year 2009/2010, the Uvex sports group recorded total sales of €103 million. Alpina has also gone through a managerial change. Alexander Selch has been appointed as new overall executive of the cycling business area at Alpina. The 36 years old started to work for Alpina in April 2010 as international sales manager. Selch has a long international experience in the sporting goods sector. Before working for Alpina in 2010, Selch has been global business director for racquet sports at Wilson Sporting Goods in Chicago.

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