American Outdoor Brands promoted James Tayon to chief product officer. Tayon will continue to lead the company’s strategic product direction, including product innovation, design, development, and marketing. He has been the VP of marketing and product development since February 2021.

Before AOB, Tayon was a product engineer for J2 Scientific and developed custom automation solutions for testing applications. In 2012, he went to work for Battenfeld Technologies, a provider of hunting and shooting accessories, as a product development engineer and, later, engineering supervisor. He joined American Outdoor Brands in 2017 when it acquired Battenfield Technologies.

“James joined our company as a product development engineer, long before the spin-off from our former parent company in 2020. Since then, he has taken on increasing responsibilities, combining his product development expertise and focus on process with his leadership capabilities and passion for the outdoors,” said President and CEO Brian Murphy. “As a result, he has been a driving force in establishing our culture of innovation, which has yielded a repeatable innovation process, a sustainable pipeline of innovative new products across our brand family, and a robust portfolio of intellectual property, all of which are core to our long term growth strategy. I look forward to James’ ongoing contributions to our future growth.”

Tayon earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and MBA in Management and Operations from the University of Missouri.

Photos courtesy American Outdoor Brands, James Tayon /LinkedIn