Out of Office: CEO of German LinkedIn rival Xing takes sabbatical

New Work SE

17/11/2016 14:22

MUNICH, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The chief executive of Xing 
 OBCGn.DE , a German rival to LinkedIn  LNKD.N , said he is 
taking a three-month sabbatical to develop new ideas and show 
his employees it's good to have a private life. 
    "Why a sabbatical? For the same reason that many other 
people have the desire to take time off. I want to consciously 
step away from the day-to-day business for a limited amount of 
time," Thomas Vollmoeller wrote in a statement on the Xing 
website.  
    The manager, who said he was writing from a cafe in Sydney, 
said he wanted to return to work at the start of 2017 with new 
ideas and a fresh lease of life.  
    "It is okay to have a private life... It is okay to question 
things, to have fun at work. And to want to have some time off 
now and then," Vollmoeller said in the statement.  
    A spokesman for Xing said Vollmoeller has been travelling 
since early October and that finance chief Ingo Chu was standing 
in for him. 
    Vollmoeller has been CEO of Xing for four years, during 
which annual revenues have grown by more than two thirds thanks 
to a growing number of paying subscribers, and its share price 
has more than quadrupled. 
 
 (Reporting by Joern Poltz; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by 
Ruth Pitchford) 
 ((maria.sheahan@thomsonreuters.com; +49 69 7565 1286; Reuters 
Messaging: maria.sheahan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: XING MANAGEMENT/