Brigitte Wittekind becomes Obi COO

On August 1, Brigitte Wittekind was appointed to the executive board of Obi Group Holding SE & Co. KGaA. The 44-year-old will assume the position of chief operations officer (COO), completing CEO Dr. Sebastian Gundel's Obi executive board, the company announced today in a press release. According to the release, in her role, Wittekind is largely responsible for Obi's technological infrastructure, supply chain and the further development of efficient processes along the cross-channel retail value chain.

"In Brigitte Wittekind, we have been able to attract a highly trained and very experienced manager," says Chairman of the Supervisory Board Christian Haub. "I am very pleased about this, as she will be taking on a great deal of responsibility in a field that has crucial leverage in Obi's strategic realignment."

CEO Gundel is also "convinced that she is an ideal appointment with her strong leadership personality and experience in the digital sector, but also as an entrepreneur." In the course of the growth strategy and transformation, it is precisely her expertise in forming and developing cross-functional teams, as well as her strong customer-centric process orientation, coupled with a modern and future-oriented attitude, that is needed.

"For me, Obi is the perfect combination of a traditional retailer with exceptional brand appeal and an interlocking digital strategy," says Wittekind, looking ahead to her new role. "To actively shape the future of Obi and the central processes of the operating business is a great task," she thanked the Supervisory Board for its trust.

Most recently, Brigitte Wittekind was part of the management board of Home24 SE as COO and was responsible for operations and purchasing. During her more than eight years there, she successfully implemented the scalability of e-commerce and logistics processes, among other things. She laid her professional foundation as a long-standing consultant at McKinsey. In addition to Brigitte Wittekind, who will report to CEO Sebastian Gundel, the Obi executive board includes Oliver Geiling as chief financial officer, Manuel van de Kamp as chief product officer, Jochen Ludwig as chief commercial officer and Peter Tepaß as chief officer CE.