The company’s first ESG director takes charge of operations, data and sustainability
Amsterdam, 15th September 2026 – Enviolo, leader in stepless shifting technology for bicycles and e-bikes, has appointed Dr. Omar El Nayal as Chief Operating Officer (COO), effective 1 August. He reports to CEO Alexander Buytendijk.
El Nayal joins the Management Board and oversees Operations and Supply Chain, Data and Analytics, and ESG. The COO position has been newly created.
He joined Enviolo three years ago as its first Director of ESG and built “Envision”, the company’s holistic sustainability strategy. Under that remit Enviolo introduced independent human rights auditing across multiple tiers of its supply chain, cut carbon emission intensity by more than 35% against a 2022 baseline, and significantly increased recycled content across its key products and packaging. His mandate widened to include strategy in 2025, then operations and supply chain in early 2026.
“Omar embodies Enviolo’s values of passion, loyalty, authenticity and joyfulness,” said Alexander Buytendijk, Chief Executive Officer at Enviolo. “He approaches his work with genuine dedication and brings clarity, empathy and transparency to every challenge. Just as importantly, his positive energy strengthens the people around him. We are confident that his leadership will carry our operations through the next phase of Enviolo’s growth.”
“Behind the products that set Enviolo apart is a complex web of suppliers, manufacturing partners and logistics providers that have to work as one,” said El Nayal. “Part of my job is orchestrating those flows. The other part is making the model itself more agile and more robust, so it holds as we scale. My goal is for our customers to find doing business with Enviolo as smooth as the rides they take on our products.”
Before Enviolo, El Nayal held leadership roles in the packaging and hospitality sectors, where he worked on driving operational excellence and leveraging sustainability as a tool for commercial growth. He began his career in academia as a researcher and professor of strategy at Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics in Portugal. He holds a PhD in Strategic Management from Erasmus University Rotterdam, where he continues to teach Executive Education programmes.
