Kasper Rørsted

Kasper Rørsted is the Chief Executive of Adidas Group. Taking on the role in October 2016, Rørsted is charged with reinvigorating Reebok as well as continuing his track record of boosting revenue and improving margins at Adidas, as achieved with some of Europe’s biggest consumer goods groups.

Previously Chief Executive of Henkel between 2008 and 2016, Rørsted was announced as the successor to Herbert Hainer, who led the German footwear giant for 15 years.

“Kasper Rørsted is the perfect candidate to succeed Herbert Hainer as CEO of adidas AG,” said Igor Landau, Chairman of the supervisory board of Adidas in a statement at the time. “He has extensive international management experience, having held positions with high-calibre companies such as Oracle, Compaq and Hewlett Packard.”

According to the Financial Times, when his departure from chemical and consumer goods company Henkel was announced, shares in the German group lost almost $1.2 billion from their market value, while Adidas gained a similar amount.

In an interview with CNBC in 2017, Rørsted made clear his intention to focus largely on digital marketing at Adidas. “All of our engagement with the consumer is through digital media and we believe in the next three years we can take our online business from approximately €1 billion to €4 billion and create a much more direct engagement with consumers,” he said.

The Danish-born executive studied at the International Business School in Copenhagen before completing a series of executive programmes at Harvard Business School. In April 2018, Rørsted also became a member of the board of directors at Nestlé S.A.