Photo above: Dr. Jens M. Abend, CEO of LR Health & Beauty Systems
Leading European direct seller LR Health & Beauty Systems is restructuring the leadership of its day-to-day operations at the close of 2014. LR has announced that Dr. Jens M. Abend, CEO of the company since 2007, is transitioning to the Advisory Board of the LR Group. Abend has overseen a change in ownership and rapid international expansion at LR, while helping the company improve its internal structures and processes.
Managers Patrick Sostmann, Tilo Plöger, Dr. Andreas Laabs and Thomas Heursen will take over Operational Management of the company following Abend’s transfer. Sostmann, who leads Global Sales, will also serve as Spokesman of the Executive Management; Plöger will oversee Human Resources in addition to Marketing and Operations; and Laabs, the company’s new CFO, will also manage LR’s E-Commerce and IT department. Heursen will continue to manage LR’s Global Partner Relations segment.
“Dr. Abend played a decisive role in the company’s success. We would like to express our sincere gratitude for his outstanding commitment and appreciate that we can continue to build on his expertise in the Advisory Board,” said Dr. Andreas Fendel, CEO of Quadriga Capital and Co-Chairman of the Advisory Board of LR Group, in the company’s release. “At the same time, we are happy to have such an experienced management team under the guidance of Patrick Sostmann continuing the success story of LR.”
Based in Ahlen, Germany, LR Health & Beauty Systems has extended its direct sales enterprise across Europe and Asia through a network of 300,000 sales partners. As the company enters its 30th anniversary year, it is also signing on a new celebrity partner, popular German fashion designer and television star Guido Maria Kretschmer. The multi-year collaboration will include an exclusive fragrance coming in 2015. Kretschmer joins other high-profile celebrities who have partnered with LR, including actor Bruce Willis and supermodel Karolina Kurkova, who introduced her second LR fragrance this month.
