BERN, Switzerland (BRAIN)—The World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry has hired a bicycle manager to work with the association’s 40 or so bike members.
German native Florian Dammer, 28, formerly of KTM and Lowa, stepped into the position last month.
“After our initial evaluation period with the WFSGI and the bicycle industry it is the right time to hire Florian as our bicycle manager in order to extend the services to our bicycle members and to further develop new programs with the UCI and other bicycle stakeholders,” said Jeroen Snijders-Blok, Accell Group’s COO and WFSGI executive board member. "We are glad that we found someone like Florian who knows both the competition scene as well as the technical bicycle issues."
Dammer, a former road racer, studied business economics and sports management and worked in marketing for both KTM and Lowa Shoes in Austria. Last year, he developed sales and marketing for sportcampus.com, a platform to provide online retail training in Munich.
The WFSGI’s bicycle membership base has increased since the Swiss-based association began working with the UCI on behalf of the industry in the midst of the UCI’s controversial mandatory frame and fork labeling program. In April the organization's members formed a Bicycle Technical Committee to handle issues related to technical regulations. Its chairman is Ridley’s chief information officer, Dirk Bruynseraede. FSA’s Claudio Marra and Specialized director of engineering Mark Schroeder are vice chairmen; the group has 19 other industry members.
The full bicycle committee includes representatives from most major North American and European brands and discusses UCI rules and regulations, supply chain and suppliers' management process, customs regulation, cooperation with advocacy organizations and legal concerns such as intellectual property rights violations and consumer protection laws. The committee is also the industry’s voice to the International Olympic Committee.
The WFSGI also hired Simone Ramsauer as PR manager. She was previously the project manager for an agency that markets the National Beach Volleyball Tour in Switzerland, and has served as the project manager of Olympic Team Management at Swiss Olympic Committee.
