Rolf Schmid, President of the European Outdoor Group (EOG) and CEO of the Mammut Sports Group has been selected as the 2008 “OutDoor Celebrity of the Year”. Given annually to a personality who has made a special contribution to the topic of the outdoors, the winner is chosen by a panel of international leading trade journalists. The announcement was made at the OutDoor Awards Ceremony on the evening of the 17 July at the OutDoor Fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany.

Rolf was delighted to be awarded this prestigous recognition of his work with the outdoor sector and commented ‘It is indeed an honour to receive this award, especially as I am a relative newcomer to this sector, but I believe that my leadership of the European Outdoor Group has served the industry by providing a strong voice and mechanism for growth; a real opportunity to provide information and services, including tradeshows in a cohesive manner that has benefited the whole of the outdoor sector.’

Joining the Mammut Sports Group in 1996, Rolf transformed Mammut into the leading international organisation that it is today. In 2002 Rolf identified a need for a cross border approach to business within the outdoor sector and his concerns about the lack of any international body to represent the industry led him to the idea of European Outdoor Group. In 2002 he identified and invited 21 companies to an exploratory meeting to discuss the idea. Nineteen of these companies came to the first meeting on the 2nd of February 2003 and founded the European Outdoor Group.

The first recipient of the Celebrity of the Year award in 2006 was Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia’s founder, the award was then given to Åke Nordin, the founder of the Swedish company, Fjällräven, in 2007.

Commenting on the award, Mark Held, Secretary General of the EOG stated, ‘I have had the pleasure of working closely with Rolf on the EOG project and his vision and determination to work on behalf of the whole industry has been outstanding.’