Mr. Rolf Blaser,
Country Manager,
Safilo India Pvt. Ltd.

Mr. Blaser arrived in Bangalore, India, at the beginning of 2008 to oversee the development of the travel retail shops at Bangalore international Airport for Nuance Group India Pvt Ltd – a joint venture of The Nuance Group Switzerland and Shoppers Stop Limited.

The Duty Free Shops in Bangalore turned out to be a huge success and were amongst the best performing Duty Free shops in India. Given the local success in India, Mr. Blaser was soon promoted to Country Head of India for the joint venture and Bangalore Airport soon became the best performing Travel Retailer in India, which is considered a shopping paradise by the passengers.

In 2012, due to personal reasons, he shifted his residence to Delhi. Here he was designated as the Country Manager (Director/Member of the Board) Safilo India Pvt Ltd in order to accelerate the business of luxury brands in the Eyewear industry such as Gucci, Dior, Jimmy Choo, Hugo Boss, Marc Jacobs and Fendi, in addition to top luxury brands such as YSL, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen amongst many others.

After a first invaluable experience in sales at the beginning of his career – selling electronic goods for 3 years directly to consumers – Mr. Blaser moved on to sell electronic products to retail shops as Key Account Manager for Sony Switzerland. Within Sony Switzerland, Mr. Blaser evolved to a position in the marketing department – initially taking care of Home Video as Product Manager – taking over the flagship ‘Digital Imagine’ category and contributing the highest net margin per category.

After 10 years of Sony experience, Mr. Blaser moved on to another global player Johnson & Johnson, where he was responsible for marketing female hygiene, baby care and skin care as Senior Product Manager Mass Market. He was appointed Business Development Manager for a sun care brand within Johnson & Johnson, taking care of 10 countries in Europe and the Middle East.

Mr. Blaser was educated in Switzerland where he earned his diploma as Economist SEBA, Department of Economics and Management from Zurich University of Applied Sciences and Executive MBA in Media and Communication from the University of St Gallen.