Thomas Rabe is the boss of Bertelsmann and chairman of the supervisory board of Adidas. picture alliance/dpa | Bernd von Jutrczenka
Thomas Rabe, chief supervisor and chairman of the supervisory board of Adidas, is facing re-election and is facing growing criticism, reports the “Handelsblatt”.
Critics argue that Rabe has too little time for Adidas due to his role as chairman of Bertelsmann and CEO of RTL Group.
Rabe justifies his renewed candidacy with the upheaval at Adidas and emphasizes the importance of an orderly handover to a successor.
There is no peace at the sporting goods manufacturer Adidas. After an economically turbulent year, criticism of the company’s chief supervisor and chairman of the supervisory board, Thomas Rabe, is now growing. This is reported by “Handelsblatt“. The manager is about to be re-elected to the board.
Rabe’s main job is chairman of the Bertelsmann media group, and he also leads the RTL Group as CEO. The company has a stake in it.
His critics are now saying that there is not enough time for his job as chairman of the supervisory board at Adidas. “We are voting against Mr. Rabe’s re-election because of his accumulation of office,” the “Handelsblatt” quotes Vanda Rothacker from Union Investment, for example.
Rabe takes criticism seriously
This criticism has also reached Rabe himself. He took the concerns seriously, he wrote in an email to shareholders, the newspaper reports. In discussions, the fundamental decision was reached that the chairman of the supervisory board should not also be the head of a listed company.
Björn Gulden has been the head of Adidas since 2023. picture alliance/dpa | Daniel Karmann
However, and this is how he justifies his renewed candidacy, Adidas is currently in a state of upheaval. “Against this background, when there is a personnel change in the chairmanship of the supervisory board, an orderly handover to a successor is of fundamental importance,” he writes in the letter.
Adidas has come under a lot of pressure in recent years. Among other things, the end of the business relationship with the rapper Kanye West left a deep hole in the finances. For the first time in the company’s history, the Herzogenaurach-based company reported a loss. Business has been recovering since the arrival of Björn Gulden, who moved from Puma to Adidas last year.
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LS