Jochen Zeitz

Born on April 6, 1963 in Mannheim, Germany, Jochen Zeitz is the Director and Chairman of the board’s sustainable development committee of Kering after having been the CEO of the Sport & Lifestyle division and Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) of Kering since 2010. Prior to this, Zeitz served 18 years as Chairman and CEO at Puma.

Zeitz has been a member of the Board of Directors of Harley-Davidson since 2007 and also chairs Harley-Davidson’s sustainability committee. He is a Board member of Wilderness Safaris and Chair of the Sustainability Committee, and serves as a member of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Advisory Board. He is a co-founder and co-chair with Sir Richard Branson of The B Team.^[1]

Early life

Studying in Germany, France, and the United States, Zeitz graduated from the European Business School in International Marketing and Finance.

Career

Zeitz began his professional career with Colgate-Palmolive in New York and Hamburg. Zeitz joined PUMA in 1990 and in 1993 was appointed Chairman and CEO becoming the youngest CEO in German history to head a public company at the age of 30. Zeitz then spearheaded the worldwide restructuring of PUMA, which was in financial difficulties at the time, and implemented a long-term development plan^[2][3] that saw PUMA’s share price gain around 4000 percent^[4] in 13 years, from 8.6 Euros in his first year as CEO to an all-time high of 350 Euros^[5] when the majority stake of the company was acquired by Kering in 2007. Zeitz managed to turn PUMA from a low priced, undesirable brand into one of the top 3 brands in the sporting good industry.^[6]

In 2008 Zeitz introduced PUMAVision as an umbrella concept to implement an ethical framework defined by the four key principles of being Fair, Honest, Positive and Creative as applied to all professional behavior, business procedures and relationships throughout and outside of PUMA.^[7] Zeitz conceived the Environmental Profit & Loss Account (E P&L) and coined the term ^[8] and in May 2011 he announced PUMA’s Environmental Profit & Loss Account^[9] that puts a monetary value to a businesses use of ecosystem services across the entire supply chain. In October 2010, Zeitz was appointed Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at Kering and soon after launched PPR HOME,^[10] a new and holistic sustainability initiative across the global brands of the Group that operates four interconnected strands of Leadership, Ecology, Humanity and Creativity.

Philanthropy

In 2008 Zeitz founded^[11] the not-for-profit “Zeitz Foundation of Intercultural Ecosphere Safety” to support creative and innovative sustainable projects and solutions that balance conservation, community development, culture, and commerce (the “4Cs”) in a quadruple bottom line approach, promoting an inclusive, holistic paradigm of conservation that enhances livelihoods and fosters intercultural dialogue while building sustainable businesses.

The Zeitz Collection was founded in 2002. Since 2008 it has committed to becoming one of the most representative collections of contemporary art from the African continent and its diaspora. It currently includes work from artists such as Owusu-Ankomah, Kudzanai Chiurai, Marlene Dumas, Rashid Johnson, Isaac Julien, Glenn Ligon, Julie Mehretu, Nandipha Mntambo, Wangechi Mutu, Chris Ofili, Andrew Putter, Nicholas Hlobo, Kehinde Wiley, and Hank Willis Thomas. The Zeitz Collection also bought 85 works at the 2013 Venice Biennale, including the award-winning installation at the Angola pavilion by artist Edson Chagas, a series of photographs by Zanele Muholi from the South Africa pavilion, and three large sculptures by Michele Mathison in the Zimbabwe pavilion.^[12] The collection is currently held and exhibited in spaces in Kenya, Spain, Switzerland, and South Africa. Scheduled to open late 2016, the 102,000 square feet Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), will be located in the historic Grain Silo in Cape Town's Victoria & Alfred Waterfront area.^[13]

Author

In 2010 Zeitz co-wrote and published “Prayer, Profit and Principles - Monk and Manager in dialogue” with Anselm Grün, a Benedictine monk.^[14] The book has been translated into 15 languages and covers topics such as: sustainability, the economy and prosperity, culture, values, success and responsibility.

Honours and awards

Zeitz has received the Strategist of the Year three times from the Financial Times,^[15] "Entrepreneur of the Year",^[16] “Trendsetter of the Year” and “Best of European Business Award 2006″.^[17] In 2004, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit of Germany.^[18] In 2009, Zeitz became Honorary Warden of Kenya by the Kenya Wildlife Service.^[19] In 2010, the German Sustainability Foundation gave Zeitz an award for Germany's most sustainable future strategies.^[20] Zeitz was named a Conde Nast Traveler “Visionaries 2012”^[21] and one of Fast Company’s “10 Most Important Players at the Rio +20 Conference”.^[22] Zeitz received the 2012 German Image Award,^[23] the 2013 Banksia International Award^[24] and the Visionary Award for the 2013 Travel + Leisure Global Vision Award.^[25]

References

External links

• Board of Management - Website PUMA AG
• Kering
• PUMAVision
• Who is Who: Jochen Zeitz (in German)
• Zeitz Foundation for Intercultural Ecosphere Safety
• The Long Run
• (Zeitz Family History in German)