Fallbrook Technologies said it had hired Rick Soberanis, who helped the Chinese sporting goods brand Li Ning develop its North American distribution channels, as its chief accelerator of sales and business development for Bike North America.

 

 

Soberanis started working with the NuVinci Bicycle Division in this new role as of Feb. 2, 2014. Soberanis is an accomplished sales, marketing, and business development executive with more than 25 years of proven results in high-profile strategic leadership roles with Fortune 500 companies such as Kraft Foods, Levi Strauss, and Nautilus. In these roles, he maintained a key leadership role in important new business expansions, notably the introduction of the Schwinn Fitness and the Bowflex brands into the sporting goods market.

 

 

Soberanis also founded Accelerator Business Solutions (ABS), a sales and marketing firm that focuses on providing strategic leadership to emerging brands poised for expansion. At ABS, he continued to follow his passion for building performance brands, developing the North American multi-channel business expansion strategy for Li-Ning Sports, China’s leading performance footwear, apparel, and equipment brand.

 

 

Fallbrook's cycling products are a standard component on more than 60 major bicycle brands throughout Europe, and Fallbrook recently added three positions in the European market to support its solid growth there. In North America, the NuVinci N360 is distributed through independent bicycle shops, online retailers, and REI, a $2 billion national multichannel retailer. In his new role with Fallbrook, Soberanis will be working with REI and the other current distributors, as well as focusing on additional distribution channels and OEM relationships for both Fallbrook's NuVinci N360 drivetrain and its Harmony auto-shifting system.

 

 

“NuVinci sales are already poised for steady increases in North America,” said David Hancock, Fallbrook's EVP responsible for the bicycle division. “Rick’s valuable background in category and channel management, combined with his attentiveness to customer needs, make him a strong addition to our North America Bike team.” “I look forward to representing NuVinci bicycle products in the North American market,” noted Soberanis. “Both the N360 drivetrain and auto-shifting Harmony system offer consumers a superior cycling experience, and I believe the market potential here is tremendous.”

 

Soberanis will operate from Portland, OR, where he resides.