Adidas is making a significant change at the top of its finance team. Harm Ohlmeyer, who has served as chief financial officer since 2017, will leave the role at the end of the year after nearly 30 years with the company. His departure follows a long run that included leadership posts across finance, sales, digital commerce and supply chain-related responsibilities.
According to the company, Ohlmeyer joined Adidas in 1998 and went on to hold a range of senior positions, including CFO of TaylorMade-Adidas Golf and senior vice president of finance for the Adidas brand and global sales. He later led the company’s e-commerce business, joined the executive board in 2017 and took on additional duties as labor director, with added oversight of supply chain and tech more recently. Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden and supervisory board chairman Nassef Sawiris both praised Ohlmeyer’s contribution, pointing to his financial expertise and his role in major strategic moves such as building the e-commerce business and the divestitures of TaylorMade and Reebok.
Taking his place will be Birgit Kretschmer, an Adidas alum who is returning to the company after six years as CFO at C&A. She will join Adidas’ executive board on Sept. 1 and is set to become CFO at the end of the year. Kretschmer spent 25 years at Adidas in a variety of leadership roles, including CFO of Adidas International BV, CFO of Western Europe, and senior vice president of corporate and operations finance, where she oversaw accounting, treasury and M&A activities as well as operational controlling. She was part of the finance leadership team from 2012 and sat in the company’s core leadership group between 2017 and 2020.
Gulden said Kretschmer is well suited to the job because of her long history with Adidas and her recent experience at a major fashion retailer. Sawiris also described her as a leader who understands the company, its business and the wider industry. Adidas said that by Jan. 1, 2027, its executive board will include Gulden, Kretschmer, Michelle Robertson and Mathieu Sidokpohou. The leadership update arrives as the company also reported strong second-quarter results for fiscal 2026, with sales rising 14 percent to 6.74 billion euros, its highest quarterly net sales on record and above market expectations.
Source: wwd.com
