The original German-language version of this text was written by Jens Vögele and was published in Focus MOBILITY in March 2025.

When Sandra Wolf tells her story, she always mentions the small strokes of good luck that have influenced her career path. Despite the many different small things that have had a decisive influence on her journey, there is still a common thread that runs through all of it. One that proves the importance of having the right mindset. The importance of taking responsibility, and of the conviction that almost anything is possible when people pull together. “I have a deeply positive attitude towards people”, she says. The fact that she truly means this is evident in every second you spend with her, but also in every aspect of her working life. Sandra Wolf has been CEO since 2013, and a partner since 2022 at Riese & Müller, one of the most significant, and above all, most unusual bicycle companies in the country.

Highly developed engineering and an unmistakeable core brand

Her journey to becoming a key player in building the company, which is headquartered in the Central German town of Mühltal, began at home at her kitchen table. That is where she began discussing the company, the brand, and their prospects a good 20 years ago with Heiko Müller, who is now her husband, and was one of the two founders of Riese & Müller. Very early on, they agreed on the aspects that have made Riese & Müller what it is today: Highly developed engineering, which the two passionate mechanical engineers Heiko Müller and Markus Riese paved the way for within the company. And a distinctive core brand with a clear strategy – brought into the company by Sandra Wolf, who has a doctorate in Business Administration.

“I love what I’m doing now”, says Sandra Wolf, even though she struggled with her studies for a long time. She thought that the numbers-driven Business Administration courses of the ‘90s were often boring and uninspiring. However, that all changed when she went to San Francisco for a post-graduate course and met many people from creative companies and branding agencies. A focus on branding and branding strategies had been a part of the day-to-day business at companies in the USA for a long time, which opened Sandra Wolf’s eyes to this reality. Suddenly, she discovered the many possibilities of combining the somewhat bland business of running a company with creativity.

Influenced by her 200-Deutschmark bicycle

When she returned to Germany in 1997, she immediately found a job at the Landor agency, which was coincidentally opening a branch in Hamburg. She later moved to the frog design agency, and spent a lot of time working in Berlin and Tel Aviv. When she began managing a large-scale concept study for Shimano, she drifted into the bike sector. She was involved in intensive and constructive discussions with Hans van Vliet, European Head of Communications at the Japanese parts giant, and learned every detail about how the bike scene works. Sandra Wolf’s perspective on the topic of bikes, which had previously been more pragmatic and influenced by her own 200-Deutschmark bicycle, suddenly underwent a fundamental change. When she founded her own agency in 2002, her new contacts in the industry meant that she had a few bicycle brands among her client base.

Back then, Riese & Müller had been operating for less than ten years and was still mostly a hobby company for the two engineering-focused university friends Markus Riese and Heiko Müller. At the time, the two were making a name for themselves in the sector with their folding full-suspension Birdy bike. “It was all very amicable”, explains Sandra Wolf, reflecting on the first time she made contact with Riese & Müller. After their first few years working out of a former dairy, the company reached its first big milestone when it moved to Haasstrasse in Darmstadt. “However,” she adds, “even back then, you could see the incredible values that have always set the company apart from the competition: honesty, authenticity, responsibility, and humanity.”

Back then, we had no idea how dynamic the e-bike market would become

That’s why finding the right brand strategy was more or less a piece of cake for Sandra Wolf. “Everything that has made us what we are today was already in place”, says Sandra Wolf. Since the company operates with as much honesty and authenticity today as it did from the very beginning, “I am still very passionate about this company.” Now, around 800 people work for the company at the sustainably designed facility in Mühltal that they moved to in 2019, where they produce around 100,000 bicycles a year. A development that can primarily be attributed to an influential decision that was made very early on. In 2008, five years before she ultimately began working for Riese & Müller full-time, Sandra Wolf had discussions with Markus Riese and Heiko Müller at her kitchen table about the growth of the e-bike market, which was still in its infancy.

“Markus and Heiko had made a radical decision to focus almost exclusively on e-bikes”, Sandra Wolf reflects. This is because they recognised that motorised Riese & Müller bikes were perfectly suited for everyday use. Also the decision had almost been made for them from an engineering perspective. And the company was still relatively small, meaning that it was flexible enough to undergo a rapid and far-reaching transformation process. “And because when I looked at the brand, I saw the stories we could tell with it”, says Sandra Wolf. To this day, she recognises that this was a bold and risky decision. She also recognises that nobody could foresee how dynamic the e-bike market would become. However, she ultimately laid the foundation for helping this small hobby business to grow into a large company with international reach.

Responsibility as the natural choice

When Markus Riese and Heiko Müller decided to offer Sandra Wolf the opportunity to join the management of the company in 2013, she didn’t have to think about it for too long. By that time, the company had already experienced tangible growth and had moved to a significantly larger facility in Weiterstadt. The product range had been expanded considerably; Birdy was no longer the sole flagship product offered by Riese & Müller, but rather the only remaining model in production that was not motorised. From there on, Riese & Müller continued to develop into an exemplary company in terms of sustainability, and became a driver of the transition in the mobility sector. “I always had a drive to take on more responsibility”, says Sandra Wolf, with the knowledge that she also played a part in this development.

For her as a businessperson, responsibility means more than just looking at the numbers; it also means looking at the people and their environment. Even though the investments made to create a good working environment and to implement sustainable production processes do not immediately appear to have made a return, Sandra Wolf is convinced that they will pay off in the long term. Once they create a feeling of having achieved something together. Once they help to promote a focus on sustainability in everyday life – both on a large scale, i.e. in terms of supply chains, and on a small scale, such as minimising packaging waste, among other things. Once they realise that the ideas will keep coming. “Sustainability also involves always being innovative and creative”, says Sandra Wolf.

For Sandra Wolf, Riese & Müller being awarded the German Sustainability Award for the two-wheeled vehicle business category in November 2024 served to validate the approach they chose. However, it is still no excuse for the company to rest on its laurels. She knows that she always needs to keep one eye on the company itself, but must look much further beyond that with the other. She has long been considered to have one of the most important voices in the sector. “We need another perspective on the topic of mobility”, she says. As the bike will be a crucial component in this, she hopes to explain, inform, and engage. Simply selling as many bicycles as possible will never be enough for her. She wants to win people over. She wants people to use her products, which could make cars obsolete in many areas. This is not for dogmatic reasons. Rather, it’s because her products are straightforward and a lot of fun. It’s as simple as that. Ultimately, everybody in well-populated areas will benefit from having fewer cars on the road.

Back when she was doing agency work, Sandra Wolf could never have even dreamed of everything she has experienced and contributed to by today. Of how she would develop a fascination with bike that would shape her everyday life. As a mother of two children who pursue competitive mountain biking with great passion and considerable success. As a private individual, who only uses a car on rare occasions. As a Managing Partner and CEO of a company that she can pour her passion into. “We work in a fantastic sector”, she says. It’s not just the fact that bikes are good for people’s health and the environment. Every single bike that is packaged at the end of the production line has the potential to have a positive impact on the life of the person who takes it out of the box. “Bikes simply bring you joy”, says Sandra Wolf. Every day, she strives to find ways to contribute to this: “That motivates me like you wouldn’t believe.”

Text & photos: © Jens Vögele