A coming of age: Cowboy welcomes Philips veteran Oliver Barleben as Chief Supply Chain Officer

Building on nearly two decades of experience at Philips where he most recently served as Global Business Process Owner and previously held leadership roles including VP of Procurement and Head of Procurement Governance, e-bike maker Cowboy has seemingly scooped up a win with Oliver Barleben.

Leveraging this expertise, in his new role Barleben will be heading up any and all global supply chain functions at Cowboy, ultimately responsible for the planning, procurement, manufacturing, and logistics of Cowboy products.

“I’m honoured to be appointed Cowboy’s Chief Supply Chain Officer and look forward to collaborating with our leadership team to advance our efforts in strengthening our supply chain operational excellence. I am very impressed with Cowboy’s automotive mindset and process-driven execution in engineering, product industrialization, qualification, and quality management,” said Barleben.

As is quite typical with the announcement of a senior-level executive, i.e. a delay in releasing the news to the wider public, according to Barleben’s Linkedin profile he joined the company in November of last year which means he could very well have been involved in the tail end of Cowboy’s B Corp certification, a title the company achieved in December of 2022 and can lay first to in the e-bike industry.

Commenting on Barleben’s appointment, Cowboy CEO and co-founder Adrien Roose said, “Cowboy has completely reimagined what an e-bike can be. With this commitment to innovation and quality,  it is essential to work with talent at Oliver’s level as we step into the next phase of maturity in our business. His vast expertise makes him the right leader at the right time, enabling us to double down on quality, supply chain excellence, and customer care, further setting us apart from other operators.”

With Spring right around the corner, often a time for bicycle manufacturers to roll out their latest and greatest, it should be interesting to see what Cowboy, and by default, Barleben has in store for us in the coming weeks and months. If Estonian competitor Ampler’s rollout of a range of new colours is any benchmark, let's see what the Belgian cattlemen have stocked in the corral.