Patagonia has announced the appointment of a new general manager for Patagonia EMEA, effective this May. Matthijs W. Visch will lead Patagonia’s growing business in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, which today counts more than 230 employees and 11 brand stores. He takes over from the previous general manager, Ryan Gellert, who is moving as planned into the role of global CEO of the holding company Patagonia Works after six years at the helm of the EMEA team. As noted by Patagonia, Visch brings 24 years of experience building and leading large and diverse teams through a people-centric leadership approach. Prior to Patagonia, he spent nearly 20 years at Nike, most recently as vice president and general manager for EMEA East since, covering Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Before he assumed that role in July 2017, he introduced the football category for Nike in Japan, ran its operations in Turkey, served as global sales manager for basketball and took care of sales for Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Prior to his work at Nike, he spent four years with Procter & Gamble Benelux. Visch will be based in the company’s EMEA headquarters in Amsterdam. In his new role, he will report to John Collins, vice president of global sales at Patagonia in California.
