Safilo Group appears to be keeping much of the leadership intact at Smith Optics' as it moves  forward with plans to phase out its headquarters by 2018 and fold it into a global sports and outdoor lifestyle division it is establishing in Portland, OR.

The Italian eyewear company last week promoted Smith veterans Chatham Baker to the position of creative director and named Drew Chilson head of product creation for its new Pacific Coast Design Center. The center will drive product development for the company's new global sports & outdoor lifestyle division, which will also be  co-located in Portland.

Baker and Chilson, who are 10-year Smith veterans, will report directly to Eric Carlson, an 18-year Smith veteran who was recently named global design and marketing director for the new division. All three men will relocate to a recently restored Salvation Army building in Southeast Portland that will house the new design center and division. Safilo expects to begin occupying the building in April and gradually relocate all of Smith's product design, marketing and e-commerce functions there in coming years.

Safilo confirmed last week that it is also keeping its sales leadership and structure intact – at  least  for now. Rob Retzlaff, Scott Oliver, Mark Phares, Brian Cotsonas, Peter Crow, Mike Torres, and Darrell Tullis will continue to manage Smith's regional sales territories. They will report to former Smith CFO Ron Hayes, who has taken on interim responsibility for overseeing Smith's North American sales. In October, Safilo named Hayes to lead the integration of Smith into its North American operations after 18 years of operating largely autonomously from Idaho. Smith uses about 75 mostly independent reps in North America.

Ned Post, who served as CEO for Smith Optics for 21 years, retired at the end of 2014.

“We have a very experienced team of leaders who will continue to run the day-to-day business successfully,” said Thorsten Brandt, Safilo CMO and Smith Brand Leader. “Temporarily adding Ron’s 20 years of experience as the CFO of Smith on top gives us great confidence that we will come out of the gates stronger than ever.”