Several Specialty Outdoor brands played a game of musical chairs last week with a number of top executive moves to bolster their teams. It seems that Yakima, Thule, Kelty, Mountainsmith, and Lowe Alpine have all been switching employees in one form or another.
While Yakima is seeing some success in recruiting after its parent company, Watermark, moved all operations to Portland, there are some down-sides to this move as well. To date, Yakima has lost two of its key employees to Thule. The most recent addition to the Thule team is new western region sales manager, Larry Hewett, who spent over 18 years with Yakima and WaterMark where he most recently held the position of western director of sales.
Earlier this year, Thule hired Chris Dannewitz as VP of business development after a career with Yakima that spanned more than fifteen years. While at Yakima, Dannewitz was most recently senior director of land sports business.
Both employees decided against moving to Portland and chose to remain in Arcata, where they are reportedly opening a Thule Office.
On the Front Range, there is a bit of shuffling going on as well. Peter Novak has left Mountainsmith and joined Kelty as their new director of sales, taking Kenny Ballards place after he was promoted to president.
Taking Novaks place at Mountainsmith is Gareth Richards who will be the new VP of sales. Richards held the position of VP of marketing for Lowe Alpine, USA, and is the second former Lowe Alpine employee to join the Mountainsmith team since Lowe consolidated operations into the Asolo headquarters in New Hampshire last year. Geoff OKeeffe, Mountainsmiths current president, was formerly Lowe Alpine USAs president.
