As a strategic executive leader, Markus Hupach has been creating value in the sports and outdoor industry for more than 25 years. He stands for moving away from traditional thinking in favor of agile experimentation, building on experience and maintaining a sense of integrity within the company.
In his early days he started as a true salesclerk at POS and learned from the roots how to sell sport innovations. That triggered an even greater interest in starting his own entrepreneurship. In the 90s, when inline skating “was on fire”, Markus had set up a startup around the trend sport.
After 20 years at ASICS, including the role of Vice President Commercial EMEA and two years managing the purchasing association SPORT2000 Europe, he knows what it means to succeed with financial and qualitative KPIs, even when the context is inevitably ambiguous. Transformation as such with digitization and sustainability are major focus areas for him, he strongly acts as a modern leader and believes in servant leadership and his growth mindset helps him to manage a life-long learning.
The graduate engineer is a cosmopolitan, enjoying a very multicultural, diverse working environment and the vibrant atmosphere in sport. Currently he lives with his family in Cologne and advises various clients on brand strategy, market development and also organizational structure, servant leadership and supporting managers towards agile business management transformation.
His love for the constant development brought him further into the world of SaaS startups. There he acts as a CEO for the ATO-Gear Holding / Eindhoven and as a board member for the fitness-/health-ecosystem SENSE DOJO. He furthermore advises a couple of other startups.
As a strategist, mentor and innovator, Markus stands for the development of a sustainable vision and the formulation of successful strategies crucial to survive fluctuations in a volatile, ever-changing business environment.
Markus is always happy to share his experience and knowledge at conferences and key notes, via podcasts or during panel discussions.