#Zalando co-CEO Rubin Ritter quits to focus on wife’s career

A leader at one of Europe’s biggest online fashion retailers is stepping down to help his wife pursue her own career.

Rubin Ritter, one of three co-CEOs at e-commerce giant Zalando, said he will resign in May after 11 years at the company so he can devote more time to his family.

“My wife and I have agreed that for the coming years, her professional ambitions should take priority,” Ritter said in a statement Sunday. “And regarding my own future, I am eager to allow myself time to explore new interests beyond Zalando.”

Ritter’s resignation will end his 11-year tenure at the Berlin-based retailer, which has more than 35 million customers in 17 different markets.

It will also come about two and a half years before his contract with Zalando is set to expire in November 2023. The company said its supervisory board will work with Ritter to dissolve the contract.

The announcement of Ritter’s departure didn’t include any further details about his wife or her job, but the company told the BBC that the couple is expecting their second child early next year.

Ritter’s compensation at Zalando totaled about 6.8 million euros ($8.2 million) last year and some 20.2 million euros (about $24.5 million) in 2018. That hefty pay made him one of Germany’s highest-paid executives, according to the BBC.

Ritter, 38, started at Zalando just about two years after its founding and has helped oversee a decade of growth for the company. It reported third-quarter revenues of roughly 1.8 billion euros (about $2.2 billion), up nearly 22 percent from the same period last year, and recently boosted its financial outlook for the full year.

Zalando’s other co-CEOs, Robert Gentz and David Schneider, will continue to lead the company after Ritter steps down at its next annual general meeting.

“It is impossible to overstate Rubin’s impact on Zalando’s success,” Gentz said in a statement. “We will miss him dearly as a strategic thinker and leader.”