Clarus Corp. announced that Aaron J. Kuehne has been promoted to the new role of executive vice president and chief operating officer and Michael J. Yates has been appointed as chief financial officer.
Kuehne joined Clarus in September 2010 and has served as CFO, secretary and treasurer since 2013 and as executive vice president since March 2021. In his new role as chief operating officer, he is responsible for Clarus’ operating model, business integration and optimization as well as the company’s operational support functions.
Yates has nearly 35 years of financial management, executive leadership, accounting, and M&A experience and joins Clarus from IDEX Corporation, an S&P 500 diversified engineered products company. At IDEX, he held multiple accounting and financial executive leadership positions, including most recently serving as chief accounting officer, a role which he held since 2010. Other positions at IDEX included interim CFO and corporate controller. Prior to IDEX, Yates worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG.
Clarus Executive Chairman, Warren Kanders, commented: “Our dedicated and talented team, led by John Walbrecht and Aaron, has been integral to the success of Clarus’ ‘Super Fan’ brands and our ability to achieve strong, profitable growth. With the expansion of our leadership team, we have taken a major step to further scale our diversified brands globally and accelerate growth, both organically and through acquisitions. We are pleased to promote Aaron to the critically important position of EVP and COO, reflecting his significant contributions to Clarus over the past 11 years. Aaron has deep company-specific and industry experience and we look forward to him playing a pivotal role in further elevating the performance of our brands and markedly enhancing our future prospects for the benefit of our shareholders.”
Clarus President John Walbrecht, said, “The entire team, together with our board of directors, are excited to collaborate closely with Aaron in his new role, as we position Clarus for our next phase of growth. We are also pleased to welcome such a seasoned executive as Mike to the position of CFO. We expect that his 16 years of public company experience, talent development and process improvement skills will serve us well in this important financial leadership role.”
Headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT, Clarus brands include Black Diamond, Rhino-Rack, MaxTrax, Sierra, and Barnes.
