Rubin Ritter, the co-chief executive officer of online fashion retailer Zalando SE, may take a potential hit of more than $100 million for the sake of his family.
The 38-year-old executive said he will retire next year so his wife can pursue her career while he takes care of their children, Bloomberg reports.
The move could cost him as much as 93 million euros ($112 million) in options from a five-year incentive program set up in 2018, Bloomberg calculations show. The multi-millionaire couple is expecting its second child.
“I want to devote more time to my growing family,” Ritter said in a Dec. 6 statement. “My wife and I have agreed that for the coming years, her professional ambitions should take priority.”
Ritter’s wife is a judge.
Ritter’s exit will leave founders Robert Gentz and David Schneider as co-CEOs from next year, deprived of their strategy chief and the face of the company.
Zalando, which has blended fashion, software and logistics capabilities to become Europe’s largest online retailer for clothes, has been uniquely run by three co-CEOs.
Ritter joined Zalando 11 years ago and helped catapult the company, which sold shares to the public for the first time in 2014, into one of Germany’s most lucrative IPOs of the past decade.
Ritter wasn’t available for further comment on his decision to step down or the financial hit he might take.
Still, he and his wife will hardly be living on a shoestring budget. Previous options programs will leave Ritter a rich man.
