Meet Dr. Sven Hamann, Director R&D and Technology Innovation Global, Sport Group & Director Recycling Technology Global, FormaTurf

Military service, academic excellence and expecting the unexpected power Dr. Sven Hamann’s precision and purpose in sports tech

Sven Hamann, PhD, hails from Mülheim an der Ruhr in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and grew up immersed in sports and academia. Following military service, Sven pursued his education in engineering, eventually earning a PhD in Materials Science. His career in innovation has spanned from managing laboratories in the steel industry to key leadership at Sport Group, where he now oversees R&D and technology strategy as well as recycling technologies for FormaTurf. With an enduring dedication to sustainability, Sven is shaping the future of sports surfaces through cutting-edge advancements in turf recycling and eco-conscious development.

Tell us a bit about growing up.

Sports were always a big part of my life: football, swimming, karate and handball, which I started playing when I was six and played for 23 years. My high school was known for sport, and there were strong handball teams in the area. I was lucky to have coaches who had trained national players.

What did your education involve?

After high school, I did 12 months of mandatory military service. After this, I continued to serve the military part time, which included rigorous training and courses for overseas missions at the Army Officers Academy in Dresden. To this day, I’m a reserve officer in the German Army. Following military service, I studied engineering at the University of Essen and at the Universidad Politècnica de Valencia. For the main study period in micro- and nanotechnology I went to the Ruhr University Bochum and the caesar research center, where I eventually completed my PhD in Materials Science in 2013.

After all that time studying, were you aiming to stay in academia?

Yes. I was looking to become a professor and I really dug deep into materials science (that is, solid state physics) but in life you can expect the unexpected—you never know where you're going to end up! I decided to try the industrial sector and I went to Vesuvius, one of the biggest manufacturers for the steel industry, starting as Laboratory Manager in 2014 and working up to European Head of Laboratories and Development.

What pulled you into the sport industry?

Having built up my experience in the industrial industry, I felt ready to enhance my skills in the management sector. Sports offered a different world to the steel industry: completely different materials, obviously, plus a totally different business compared with my previous experiences. The beauty of sports is that it’s both an emotional and a technical world.

How would you describe your role at Sport Group?

My role has two main aspects: overseeing R&D and driving our technology innovation on a global scale. I manage both the immediate, hands-on work, like problem-solving and daily operations, and the long-term strategic initiatives. It’s a bit like captaining a very large ship—balancing the immediate needs of the business while steering toward sustainable growth.

“It’s easy to present a polished image of sustainability without doing the real work. At Sport Group, we’re committed to tangible actions. FormaTurf is a great example—we’re investing heavily in the technology to recycle turf efficiently to benefit the whole industry.”

Tell us about FormaTurf.

In addition to my primary R&D role, I’m also Global Director of Recycling for FormaTurf, which makes this job more complex, but highly rewarding. FormaTurf is Sport Group’s commitment to sustainable turf solutions, including end-of-life recycling options for artificial grass. Having dual roles means I juggle two email addresses, two sets of responsibilities, and often two perspectives. The challenge lies in balancing operational demands with strategic planning, but it’s immensely satisfying to see our work gain traction in the market.

What’s been the most exciting project you’ve worked on at Sport Group?

That is really hard to say, because of the amount of different topics and initiatives I have been involved in. But if I had to pick one, I probably would go with the dry turf for hockey. This was something that required our team to rethink what artificial turf could be. In 2021, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) expressed interest in a turf solution that didn’t require water for play. We took this challenge seriously, and in 2022, we showcased our dry hockey turf prototype at the Hockey5s event in Lausanne. By Paris 2024, we had the Poligras Paris GT zero in place, a fully non-irrigated turf designed to perform at elite levels.

Developing a ‘dry’ turf means we’re reducing water usage—a critical factor in many parts of the world, so seeing our prototype evolve into a product for a major event like the Olympics was extremely fulfilling.

And the most challenging?

FormaTurf is humongous. It’s more than just a product; it’s an industry-wide solution for artificial turf recycling and getting sports to a sustainable level. Sustainability is critical in the sports industry and FormaTurf has numerous dimensions—technology, production, certification, and market acceptance—so it’s a massive effort, and its success will have a lasting impact on sports surfaces worldwide.

What are some of the biggest challenges in pushing sustainability forward?

One of the biggest obstacles is overcoming ‘greenwashing,’ or superficial sustainability claims. It’s easy to present a polished image of sustainability without doing the real work. At Sport Group, we’re committed to tangible actions. FormaTurf is a great example—we’re investing heavily in the technology to recycle turf efficiently to benefit the whole industry.

True sustainability takes hard work and involves layers of complexity. Each sustainable initiative we undertake requires us to balance financial, technical, and logistical considerations while keeping the end goal in sight. If we want to make an actual difference, we need to go beyond marketing and deliver real, long-lasting solutions. It’s harder but worthwhile.

How would you describe your leadership philosophy?

My time as an officer in the German Army was instrumental in shaping how I lead. The German military underwent significant reforms over recent decades, moving away from the traditional way of commanding to adopting a more collaborative leadership approach. As a result, I see myself as a catalyst, someone whose job is to bring out the best in others by guiding, coaching, and supporting. In the end, I’m the one who's responsible, but it's always about me helping our people get to a higher level. Success is always based on a team working together.

How do you spend your time when you’re not working?

With two young kids, life outside of work is pretty active. My son is six, and my daughter is seven, so they keep me busy! I’m a whisky enthusiast and I enjoy hosting whisky tastings with friends in our backyard and doing a bit of barbecuing, no matter if it is summer or winter—sunshine, rain, or snow.

Physical activity is still important to me, even though I don’t have much time, but I’ve found that exercise later in the day helps me clear my head. Luckily, I don’t need a huge amount of sleep; six hours is good enough for me.