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For the past 20 years Jochen Zeitz has been CEO of internationally acclaimed public companies and is currently CEO and Chairman of a world-renowned public corporation.
Zeitz previously served as Chairman and CEO of PUMA. He is also the Co-Founder and Co-Chair of The B Team and Founder of the Zeitz Foundation for Intercultural Ecosphere Safety to support sustainable solutions that balance conservation, community, culture and commerce (the 4Cs). Zeitz is recognised as one of the worldтАЩs leaders in sustainable business, conservation and philanthropy.
In 1993, aged 30, Jochen Zeitz became the youngest CEO in German history to head a public company. Zeitz served 18 years as Chairman and CEO of PUMA and under his leadership PUMA went from near-bankruptcy to become one of the top 3 brands in the sporting goods industry, growing sales to $4 billion and share price by 4000%.
Jochen Zeitz believes in contributing to a new paradigm of corporate social, environmental and financial sustainability. While at PUMA, Zeitz conceived and pioneered the ground-breaking Environmental Profit and Loss account (E P&L) that puts a monetary value on environmental impacts across a businessтАЩ supply chain, inspiring a new internationally-recognised environmentally and socially conscious business model.
In 2014, Zeitz co-founded The B Team with Sir Richard Branson, an initiative which includes 24 of the worldтАЩs top business leaders such as Professor Mohammed Yunus, President Mary Robinson, Mo Ibrahim, Paul Polman and Arianna Huffington, promoting socially and environmentally conscious business practices across the globe
With a life-long passion for Africa, Jochen Zeitz conserves 50,000 acres of wildlife habitat in Kenya and in 2012 launched Segera Retreat, an entirely sustainable, luxury eco-safari retreat, named as the only 5-star safari lodge in Kenya by the Kenya Tourism Regulatory Authority.
As a published author, Jochen Zeitz co-wrote The Manager and The Monk with Anselm Gr├╝n, which has been translated into 15 languages, and The Breakthrough Challenge: 10 Ways to Connect TodayтАЩs Profits with TomorrowтАЩs Bottom Line with John Elkington.
Zeitz is a Board Member of Cranemere and formerly served on the Board of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). He is also a Board Member of The Long Run, which was originally founded by the ZEITZ Foundation but has since become an independent UK-registered charity and the largest organization of its kind worldwideтАФsafeguarding over 21 million acres of land and touching the lives of 750,000 people globally. Until recently he also served as Board Member and Chair of the Sustainability Committee for Wilderness Safaris and Kering, the international luxury goods group for whom he developed its global sustainability strategy.
During his professional career Jochen Zeitz has received numerous awards, including тАШEntrepreneur of the YearтАЩ, 3-times тАШStrategist of the YearтАЩ by the Financial Times, тАШTrendsetter of the YearтАЩ and тАШBest of European Business AwardтАЩ. In 2004, the German Federal President awarded him with the Federal Cross of Merit of the Republic of Germany. Zeitz was also appointed as an Honorary Warden of Kenya, by the Kenya Wildlife Service, and a ZSL Conservation Fellow by the Zoological Society of London. In 2015, Zeitz was ranked #18 of тАШThe WorldтАЩs Top 100 Compassionate Business LeadersтАЩ by Salt Magazine and awarded for his advocacy of Responsible Capitalism by First Magazine.
In 2017, Zeitz launched the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, South Africa, along with his partners at the V&A Waterfront. Zeitz MOCAA commits to preserving and exhibiting cutting-edge contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, and houses the Zeitz Collection, considered to be one of the most significant contemporary African art collections in the world. Zeitz MOCAA opened to great acclaim and saw incredible numbers тАУ over 70,000 people тАУ in its opening month.
In 2019, Conde Nast Traveler named Jochen Zeitz as one of тАЬThe 44 People Changing the Way We TravelтАЭ. In 2023, Zeitz was awarded the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership award, recognising his ability to build trust across divides, a collaborative and inclusive approach to solving local, national and global challenges.
