Entrepreneur and tournament patron Gerhard Weber has died
The tennis circus also mourns with great dismay the loss of one of Germany's greatest entrepreneurs and the founder of GERRY WEBER and the ATP Tour 500 tournament in Halle / Westphalia: Gerhard Weber is old on the night of September 23rd to 24th, 2020 died of 79 years.
by PM
last edit: Sep 24, 2020, 04:56 pm
"On behalf of all employees, we express our deepest condolences and condolences to the family of Gerhard Weber", said Alexander Gedat, CEO of GERRY WEBER International AG. "We feel the greatest gratitude and respect for a well-respected entrepreneur and we mourn a deeply impressive personality."
Companions describe Gerhard Weber as a brilliant entrepreneur who drove the company's fortunes with tireless energy and never-ending vigor. With great passion for the collection, he played a key role in creating it and always knew how to set the decisive detail that was responsible for the great success of the fashion from his house. In November 2014, Gerhard Weber moved from the Management Board to the company's Supervisory Board.
Steffi Graf under contract
Gerhard Weber founded the company in his home town of Halle / Westphalia on March 1st, 1973 together with his friend and partner Udo Hardieck (died 2018) as Hatex KG. Initially intended to manufacture and sell women's trousers, the company quickly became successful and went public in 1989 as GERRY WEBER International AG.
In addition to his flair for fashion, Gerhard Weber also had an unmistakable instinct for successful ideas. The signing of the then 17-year-old Stefanie Graf as a brand ambassador for GERRY WEBER in 1986 is a big coup to this day. In 1993, another decisive step followed, which was to make the GERRY WEBER brand world famous: The start of the GERRY WEBER OPEN (now NOVENTI OPEN), the largest German ATP tennis tournament, which has developed into a renowned grass event on the ATP Tour since its debut and has achieved an international reputation with ten times the title holder Roger Federer.
Since November 1985 Gerhard Weber has been the 1st chairman of the TC Blau-Weiss Halle, which under his leadership rose to become one of the most successful tennis clubs in Germany and, among other things, was able to win five German team championship titles.
In 2011 Gerhard Weber was honored for his life's work by the leading medium in the fashion industry, “TextilWirtschaft”. The German Tennis Association also honored Weber with an award in 2018 for his extraordinary commitment and his "outstanding achievements for German tennis".