Prince Sports, Inc., announced that Doug Fonte has joined the Prince team as the new President of Prince USA. He replaces Bill Foy, who had joined the Prince team from former sister company, Rollerblade. Fonte will relocate to Prince's Bordentown, NJ headquarters from Park City, UT.

George Napier, chairman and CEO of Prince, told SportsOneSource that Fonte, who he worked closely with at Boston Whaler, that he pulled Fonte out of retirement just as Prince is experiencing substantial growth, fueled by the new O3 engineered racquet series.

“Over the past 25 years, Doug has brought vision and energy to several leading companies in various industries, including tennis, which has resulted in significant business growth and improved customer satisfaction,” said Napier in a release. “He has a strong track record in business but his heart, and passion, is in the tennis industry and we’re looking forward to leveraging his strategic, executional, and people development skills, to take our company to the next level of success. The way I see it, Doug is going to raise the bar for management excellence, just as we’re doing with the product innovations we bring to market under the Prince and Ektelon brands”.

Prior to his period of semi- retirement (which Doug says is the only thing he’s failed at) Fonte was at the helm of Companion Systems Inc and a partner in a strategy consulting group called Business Visions LLC. Before that he was President of Boston Whaler and was instrumental in the turnaround that led the company to a leadership position in the luxury boating world. Fonte’s expertise in the tennis arena was groomed as President of Penn Racquet Sports. There he helped the company become the worldwide market leader in its category. Early in his career, he held positions in the home furnishings industry.

“Prince is the kind of company that tennis enthusiasts want to work for,” said Fonte. “Their constant focus on innovation and performance enhancement creates a dynamic, stimulating work environment in which ideas come to life. I have worked with George before and am looking forward to strengthening his team and leveraging the progress they’ve made since the management buy-out, and creating new opportunities moving forward.”