Adidas beefs up for China Olympics

The move is part of a restructuring of its Greater China operations ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. According to Cindy Ng, head of brand communications at Adidas Asia-Pacific, the reorganisation effort, which kicked off last year, initiated the formation of areas in the Asia-Pacific region and will be complete by year's end. "Greater China is the first area in the region to be completed and it saw former Adidas managing director Sandrine Zerbib take over as head of the area, managing China, Hong Kong and Taiwan," said Ng. "As we have this formation of areas, we see Greater China as a whole entity. It is one of the key drivers in the region leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Currie, who was most recently deputy managing director at Sony Music International Malaysia, has held GM roles at various international companies. His career spans multiple consumer goods and services industries, including in the telecommunications, airlines, credit cards, hotels and music and publishing secotors in Australia, the UK, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Wellman, meanwhile, joined Adidas China as sales and marketing director in 1998 and in December 2001 was appointed managing director of its operation in Thailand. Both will report to Zerbib and will oversee all operations and businesses of Adidas, including marketing, branding, sales, products, sports marketing, retail and business development. The appointments come ahead of a similar reorganisation in Southeast Asia, which the brand is expected to announce over coming weeks.