Petzl America appointed Tom Adams as sales director. Adams worked as Petzl America's sport division manager for the past six years. In his new role, he will be responsible for driving sales across the sport, professional, and headlamp divisions.

Prior to joining Petzl America, Adams spent 16 years working with major brands in the outdoor industry, in capacities ranging from manufacturing and retail sales to marketing to sales management.

“I am truly excited to welcome Tom into the Sales Director position,” says Petzl America President Nazz Kurth. “His authenticity, focus, and people skills are outstanding. His experience as a rep, spending time on the road, and visiting dealers gives him a deep understanding of rep and dealer needs. In the years I've worked with Tom, I have greatly appreciated his business acumen, managerial skills, and creativity.”

As Sport Division Manager, Adams guided Petzl America to consistently strong sales and oversaw nine outside sales rep agencies covering the U.S. and Canada. Of his many achievements as Division Manager, Adams highlights his development of the Petzl Turns Program, designed to eliminated many of the challenges of standard pre-season ordering programs. Adams states, “it has proved to be a time-saving tool that our dealers truly appreciate.”

A Utah native, Adams is an avid climber, cyclist, and skier. He has first ascents as difficult as 5.14 to his name, as well as speedy ascents of peaks such as Wyoming's Grand Teton. He's ridden the 200-mile LOTOJA cycling day race seven years running and has been skiing since he was four.

One of Petzl's overarching missions is to provide not just products, but also the technical information and training end users need to best utilize those products. As an expert in all things Petzl, Adams also brings a love for the teaching side of things. “It all goes back to education,” Adams explained. “Just like our team here at Petzl America, none of our products are stand alone; they work as parts of systems. I'm happy to continue collaborating with and educating our Sport, Professional, and Headlamp dealers about our products and the systems that connect them in order to better their business and ours.”