07 Dec 2018
David Stalker joins Myzone to drive European expansion
BY Tom Walker
David Stalker, former CEO of ukactive, has been named CEO of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for fitness tech company Myzone.
Stalker will lead the EMEA executive team to expand its direct operations in mainland Europe while continuing to support its existing Myzone partners.
He will be working closely with Myzone founder and group CEO Dave Wright and will also sit on the Myzone Board.
"My focus will be on helping Myzone with its European plans," Stalker said.
"There's two ways for us to do business on the continent – either through distributors or going direct – and we like the idea of going direct.
"While we will have some distributors, much of my time will be spent setting up European offices – almost certainly in Germany – and we are currently recruiting teams in each of the countries we plan to go into and finding country managers.
"We're also looking at distribution units, because we don't know what comes out of Brexit – and whether we can send things out of UK, or whether we will need a presence in somewhere in Europe."
Myzone group CEO Dave Wright added: "With more than 6,000 facilities across 64 countries, Europe is a hot focus for Myzone as we continue to expand across the continent, so we needed someone with strong European pedigree to help drive that forward."
While his primary focus will be on Europe, Stalker added that he will also be spending time on growing Myzone's business across developing markets.
"Myzone has had quite a bit of success in the Middle East – especially in Dubai – so we'll be looking to consolidate that," Stalker said.
"And Africa is the continent that is outgrowing every other at the moment – particularly when it comes to its developing middle-class.
"Sadly, they are showing signs of suffering from all the same health issues, such as obesity, which we in 'the west' have suffered horribly with."
Stalker is a fitness industry veteran and has spent his entire career in the sector.
Following stints at Bladerunner and Leisure Connection, Stalker spent seven years at ukactive, most of them as executive director and CEO. There, he oversaw the not-for profit body's transition from being the Fitness Industry Association to its current role as the lobby group for the entire physical activity sector.
For the past three years, he has been CEO of the UK’s largest trampolining provider Oxygen Free Jumping, which he co-founded in 2015.
Oxygen hit tough times earlier this year and was bought out of administration by NM Capital. Stalker remains a non-executive director at Oxygen, which last month opened a site at the O2 in London.
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