Meet Omar Obaisi, based in Chicago, who leads our Global Internal Audit function at Amer Sports, overseeing SOX 404 compliance and operational audits. As his team focuses on advancing the audit program this year, they are deepening their role as a strategic partner, helping leaders anticipate risks, and creating tangible value across our growing global organization. Omar shares what makes Amer Sports a unique place for finance professionals and why he is excited about the future of finance at our company.
You have an extensive career in finance. What made you choose Amer Sports?
I’ve been fortunate to have built internal audit groups across my career, but this was a unicorn opportunity. The timing was rare—a newly public company with iconic brands, genuine global scale, and an internal audit function that still needed to be built. That combination doesn’t come along often. I wanted to be part of something formative rather than inherit a mature structure, and Amer Sports offered exactly that: a chance to build something meaningful from the ground up.
In practice, that meant standing up the SOX program at a newly NYSE-listed company, establishing co-source relationships with Big 4 firms, and building audit governance directly with the Audit Committee.
From your perspective as a finance leader, what sets Amer Sports apart for finance professionals?
What struck me early at Amer Sports is the scope of what you’re exposed to: a world-class portfolio, globally scaled, operationally complex, spanning markets and business models most professionals never see in a single role. For a finance professional, that exposure is extraordinary.
You’ve been here for two years now. What excites you most about where Amer Sports Finance is heading?
We’re still in the early chapters of being a public company, and the finance organization is growing into that moment. What excites me is how much opportunity lies ahead for process maturity, for data-driven decision-making, for finance to earn a genuine seat at the strategic table. Investments like the Amer Sports Academy signal that leadership is serious about developing talent and setting the tone for strong cross-functional collaboration across regions, functions, and brands. That’s rare, and it matters.
Most finance functions take years to move from compliance-first to insight driven. We have the opportunity to compress that timeline, and the organizational appetite to do it.
Do you have a favorite memory from your time with us?
Early in my tenure, the finance leadership team held our first team-building session in Shanghai. It was a chance to get to know each other on a more personal level, align on strategic plans and priorities, and establish how we would best support one another. The camaraderie in that room, and the genuine team-player culture the group was already building, set the foundation for everything that followed.
