woom bikes Announces New Executive Leadership Team

February 2, 2022

Austin-based, Mathias Ihlenfeld, Promoted to Global CEO

AUSTIN, Texas – Feb. 2, 2022 /OUTDOOR SPORTSWIRE/ – woom bikes, the fastest-growing kids’ bike brand in North America, has announced a new executive leadership team to guide the brand on its quest to become the global market leader in children’s bicycles. woom USA founder, Mathias Ihlenfeld, is now at the helm as the brand’s Global CEO. The company has also announced Paul Fattinger as CFO, and Martin Bartmann as its new interim COO. With this management team, the company is poised for expansion into new markets – a primary focus for the brand as it continues to experience exponential growth globally.

Ihlenfeld founded woom bikes USA in 2014, one year after the brand was first established in Austria. With an uncompromising direct-to-consumer focus and outstanding customer service, Ihlenfeld succeeded in making woom the fastest-growing kids’ bike brand in the country, and the largest direct-to-consumer brand in the space. Just eight years after it was founded, woom rolled its 500,000^th bike off the production line in 2021. He has big goals for the company as its new CEO, but remains steadfast in staying true to its roots.

“We want to continue to grow and advance, while at the same time preserving the special spirit that defines woom,” said Ihlenfeld. “For us, it’s still about one thing above all: conveying a love of cycling to children. That is our mission.”

Fattinger, woom bikes’ new CFO, is a long-standing partner of financial group BDO Austria, who has specialized in scaling companies. After career positions at KPMG and the Boston Consulting Group, Fattinger orchestrated the merger of woom USA and woom Europe into ‘one woom,’ a global brand, for 2021. In his new role as managing director for finance and strategy, he will be responsible for ensuring a solid financial structure and overseeing the strategic direction of the company.

“In just under eight years, a garage start-up has become an international player,” said Fattinger.  “We now want to ensure that this rapid development for woom continues without growing pains.”

The new management team also includes Bartmann as interim COO. The IT specialist and top international manager will be responsible for optimizing logistical processes and securing the supply chain at woom. Bartmann takes over this role from Guido Dohm, who will focus on further development of the European woom production and assembly site in Świebodzin, Poland, as well as the fully automated production of bicycle frames and forks in other Eastern European countries.

With a number of specialized engineering, technology and automation partners, the graduate engineer and supply chain expert will push the development of a new bicycle cluster in the middle of Europe, promoting shorter delivery times to improve product availability, increasing sustainability.

As part of the reorganization of woom’s executive team, the company’s founders, Marcus Ihlenfeld and Christian Bezdeka, are stepping back from day-to-day operations, but remain shareholders in the company. Moving forward, the pair will devote their attention to the vision and long-term strategic development of the brand, as well as the future of its product portfolio.

With the strength of its new leadership team, woom is committed to fostering a love of cycling in children across the globe as the company continues to expand into new markets.

For more information about woom, visit us.woombikes.com.

# # #

About woom

woom is a globally-acclaimed kids’ bicycle company, originally founded in Austria in 2013, and expanded to the United States one year later. woom has disrupted the kids’ bike category across Europe and North America, as the largest and fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brand in the space. Its award-winning bikes include options that are 40% lighter than conventional kids’ bikes, making woom bikes the lightest series-production kids’ bikes in the world. For more information, visit us.woombikes.com or @woombikesusa on Instagram.