Our Management

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Bjørn Gulden (*1965) has been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PUMA SE since July 2013.

The Norwegian native has an extensive international experience of more than 20 years in the sporting goods and footwear industry. Prior to PUMA, Bjørn was CEO of Danish jewellery brand Pandora, Managing Director of Europe’s largest footwear retailer Deichmann, Senior Vice President of Apparel and Accessories at Adidas and he held various management positions at outdoor apparel company Helly Hansen.

Bjørn was a professional football player and played for 1. FC Nürnberg in the German Bundesliga, and for Bryne and Strømsgodset in the Norwegian Premier League.

Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Lars Sørensen (*1963) has been Chief Operating Officer (COO) of PUMA SE since August 2014.

In his role, he is responsible for operations, supply chain management, logistics and IT. Prior to PUMA, the Danish native was Chief Operating Officer at Bestseller and Esprit and held various management positions at Adidas and Lego. Lars joined PUMA in November 2013 as Global Director Business Processes and Intelligence.

Chairman of the SUPERVISORY Board

Group Managing Director and member of the Administrative Board of Kering S.A., Paris/France, responsible for Strategy, Operations and Organization

Jean-François Palus graduated from the École des hautes études commerciales (HEC) in Paris and began his career at Arthur Andersen as auditor and financial advisor.

Before joining the Artemis Group in 2001, Jean-François Palus had already been with Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (now Kering) for ten years. He held various positions including deputy CFO of Pinault S.A., Group Financial Control Director, FNAC Store Manager and Corporate Secretary. From 1998 until 2001, Mr. Palus was a member of the Executive Board of Conforama. In 2009, Jean-François Palus was called to the Board of Directors of Kering S.A. after he served as CFO managing Kering’s mergers and acquisitions already since 2005.

On 16 June 2007, Mr. Palus joined the Administrative Board of PUMA SE and has been its Chairman since 2012.

Senior Vice-President Human Resources, Kering S.A., Paris/France

Béatrice Lazat graduated from the École Supérieure de Commerce in Paris and holds an MBA from Georgia State Univeristy.

She started her career at Cartier in France before moving on to Christofle. Subsequently, Ms. Lazat joined L’Oréal where she held various international positions in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Australia and China, building a professional career of over 20 years. More recently, Ms. Lazat was head of human resources for L’Oréal in Shanghai, overseeing the Asia-Pacific region. In March 2016, she joined Kering, where she was appointed Senior Vice-President Human Resources.

Since 4 May 2016, Ms. Lazat has been a member of the Administrative Board of PUMA SE.

Employees' representative

Administrator IT systems, PUMA SE, Herzogenaurach/Germany

Bernd Illig joined PUMA back in 2005. After spending nine years in IT support, he joined the IT Systems team in the role of Adminis­ trator IT Systems. As a member of the special negotiating body, he participated in negotiations to convert the company into an SE in 2010, and was subsequently elected to the SE works council. Since then he has held the position of chairman of the SE works council.