The Chinese clothing and sporting goods group Anta Sports Products Limited has completely overhauled its management team and will be relying on dual leadership in the future. The aim of the comprehensive personnel change is to improve corporate governance by separating the roles of CEO and chairman and to align the management structure more closely with the group strategy, said the parent company of brands such as Fila, Anta and Descente on Wednesday.
Accordingly, Lai Shixian and Wu Yonghua will lead the group of companies as co-CEOs in the future. They jointly succeed Ding Shizhong, who is stepping down as CEO but will continue to play an important role as chairman, including developing the group’s strategy.
The new structure triggered further chair shifts in the group. Following his promotion to co-CEO, Lai Shixian will step down as chief financial officer (CFO) and head up all group brands except Fila, as well as group-level human resources, legal, investor relations and administration, the company said. Bi Mingwei, who has been with Anta Sports since 2007, has been appointed as the new chief financial officer.
Wu Yonghua is giving up his previous post as Managing Director of the Performance Sports Group division and, in his new role as Co-CEO, will be responsible for the Fila brand as well as the group’s international business, public relations and management of the retail sales channels.
As part of the personnel restructuring, Zheng Jie resigned from his positions as Group President and CEO of the Outdoor Sports Group segment. According to the group, he will in future concentrate entirely on managing the Amer Sports division, which was acquired in 2019 and includes well-known labels such as Salomon, Arc’teryx, Wilson, Peak Performance and Atomic. Ding Shijia relinquished responsibility for the group’s supply chain and took charge of production activities.
