EGYM is fortifying its leadership team with two highly esteemed top managers in the fitness industry: the former CEOs of Life Fitness, Chris Clawson, and Precor, Rob Barker. Clawson will assume the newly appointed position of general manager Gymtech at EGYM in mid-February. Barker will serve as a strategic advisor to EGYM CEO Philipp Roesch-Schlanderer.
Roesch-Schlanderer views the addition of Clawson and Barker as “significant milestones as we celebrate our 15-year anniversary.” In a press release, he called out their “unwavering dedication to the health and wellness industry.” During their tenures, Clawson and Barker successfully elevated their former companies to global market leadership. Roesch-Schlanderer expressed immense pride in welcoming them to the EGYM team and looks forward to gaining valuable insights from their extensive industry experience.
EGYM’s approach to an open fitness technology ecosystem of connected partners made the connection with Clawson and Barker possible in the first place. “I met Chris for the first time in 2016,” said Roesch-Schlanderer. “Our focus topic was the ‘Quick Start’ button that most exercisers press on the cardio consoles instead of logging in for a personalized workout, and it was clear to us that we could only solve this with Life Fitness Hardware and EGYM Software.”
During his first meeting with Barker the following year, he asked directly how the EGYM Cloud could become a secure platform to connect the industry across all hardware and software players to benefit operators and users. “These were clear indicators for me that the era of individual technological solutions is clearly over and needs to be replaced by collaboration in the industry and a common software platform,” said Roesch-Schlanderer.
Regarding his motivation to join EGYM, Clawson said: “I’m thrilled to work with Philipp and the entire team at EGYM to implement the company’s big goal of partnering with as many operators and suppliers as possible for a fully connected workout experience in and outside the club.” Clawson noted Roesch-Schlanderer didn’t have to do much convincing: “How he convinced Sir George Buckley to become EGYM’s Chairman of the Board – if Philipp could convince George, who I’ve known for 25 years, EGYM must be doing something right.”
Barker said: “I have known Philipp and EGYM for more than seven years, as Precor and EGYM have a deep development partnership. I have admired the EGYM approach and growth as operators and consumers become increasingly used to the hybrid world of digitally connected fitness experiences. I look forward to helping Philipp, the EGYM team and its customers. It’s also great to be working with Chris; we were leaders of competing businesses for many years but got on well since we always shared the same desire to simply get more people more active more often and make the world a better place.”
Clawson succeeds former EGYM chief customer officer Christoph Bischoff, who is taking on a new professional challenge outside EGYM.
“I would like to thank Christoph for his outstanding work over the last five years and wish him all the best in his new role,” said Roesch-Schlanderer. “During the COVID-19 lockdown, Christoph led EGYM Gymtech through a very difficult time and developed our company in parallel into a global and fast-growing platform. Strengthened by Chris and Rob, we will continue to drive the transformation of the healthcare market from repair to prevention and remain true to our approach as an open platform provider. Because we know that such a huge task cannot be accomplished without strong partners.”
