Veteran Kosmos senior exec Heiko Windfelder, who oversaw rise of Catan, Exit games at German publisher, is retiring

Heiko Windfelder, the Kosmos board game lead who played a key role building up brands including Catan and the Exit family of games, is retiring after 30 years at the company.

Windfelder joined Kosmos’ marketing and sales operation in 1995, the same year the business first published Klaus Teuber’s Settlers of Catan – which has since gone on to sell more than 45 million copies.

He became ‘program manager’ at the company 13 years ago with responsibility for the company’s toy and game lines, which have included successes such as The Crew, Targi, Imhotep and Legends of Andor, as well as hits from other publishers such as Sky Team, last year’s Spiel des Jahres winner. Kosmos’ Exit line of tabletop escape room-style games has sold about 25 million copies worldwide since the series was launched in 2016.

Birgitta Barlet takes over overall program management for board games, toys and books at Kosmos. She has been with the company since 2002, with most of that time spent in management roles in its book publishing operation.

Windfelder’s retirement comes two years after long-time managing director Michael Fleissner retired, handing over operational management of the German company to Windfelder, Thilan Tran and Matthias Kienzle.

Tran and Kienzle will continue managing the business as a dual leadership following Windfelder’s exit. Tran has been with Kosmos for almost as long as Windfelder, having joined in 1996, while Kienzle was hired by the firm in 2016 following a two-year stint as sales director at LEGO Group. He previously spent more than a decade in sales and marketing at Procter & Gamble.

Windfelder said he looked back on his three decades at Kosmos “with great gratitude”.

A statement from Tran and Kienzle said, “Over the past 30 years, Kosmos has developed into the highest-selling games publisher in the field of family and adult games.

“During this time, Heiko Windfelder has played a very influential role in shaping the fortunes of the company.

“With his passion for special stories, his creativity and his feel for special titles and exceptional authors, he has made a significant contribution to leading the publishing house to this pole position.

“For this, we thank him from the bottom of our hearts on behalf of the management and the entire Kosmos team.”

Kienzle added, “Birgitta Barlet, who will be responsible for the publisher’s entire program in the future, has been part of the Kosmos success story for many years. In addition, she has worked closely with Heiko Windfelder over the past 20 years and has played a major role in the company’s successful development.

“Handing over overall program responsibility to her is therefore the natural next step. I am very pleased to continue the KOSMOS success story together with her.”

Barlet said, “Great brands, good stories and quality content will continue to be the focus in the future in order to support children and adults in their personal development.

“To achieve this, we rely on creative content creators and, at the same time, on innovative teams that are curious and keen to try new things. We have all of that at Kosmos.

“I am therefore certain that we will continue to develop special, unusual and surprising products based on this passion, with which we will continue to inspire people in the future.”

Kosmos’ release slate this year features a new edition of Catan with revamped artwork to celebrate the game’s 30th anniversary, as well as a Catan-themed version of Exit.

Its other releases for 2025 include Flip 7, Castle Combo and Cascadia Junior.