Saucony announced strategic new hires and key promotions in sales, marketing, international and product management. The changes will bolster the company’s efforts in the specialty running channel, overseas, product design and with sponsored athletes.

“The brand is firing on all cylinders,” said Richie Woodworth, president of Saucony. “This strategic investment in talent acknowledges the great success our team is currently enjoying and bolsters our bench strength and alignment against important strategic initiatives across our business to address the significant opportunities for Saucony in the global marketplace.”
 
With this announcement, Woodworth outlined the following:

In recognition of Saucony’s continued leadership in the run specialty retail channel, Fred Doyle will assume the newly created role of vice president of market development-run specialty. In this role, Doyle will be responsible for the development and management of team sports; the further advancement of the brandâ€s partnership with Fleet Feet Sports; the ongoing expansion of the Saucony Supreme Retailer program; sales training; and oversight of the brandâ€s run specialty e-commerce business.

Timothy Knowlton has been promoted to vice president of field sales. In his new role, Knowlton will be responsible for defining and implementing strategic sales plans to accelerate growth and increase market share for Saucony. Knowlton will oversee the brandâ€s field sales agencies and its regional managers. Erin E. Flynn, formerly director of sales for Saucony Originals, will assume Knowltonâ€s prior role as regional sales director-east.

Mark Bossardet joins the Saucony team and will serve in the newly created position of vice president of global sports marketing. Bossardet will be responsible for leading a long-term strategic sports marketing plan in support of Sauconyâ€s overall brand strategy, including the development of a strong stable of international professional athlete endorsers in anticipation of the 2012 London Olympics and beyond.

Bossardet, a highly accomplished and globally recognized sports marketing professional, was most recently with Reebok International as general manager/vice president of global performance marketing and communication. Prior to that, Bossardet was senior director of global sports/Olympic marketing for Nike, Inc., which included key contract negotiations with athletes, coaches, clubs, universities, events and sports governing bodies throughout the world. As an industry leader, Bossardet was awarded the International Association of Athletics Federations Presidentâ€s Award for his contributions to the sport, and was one of the youngest qualifiers for the 1980 Menâ€s Olympic Marathon Trials. Bossardet received his B.S. degree from C.W. Post College at Long Island University.

Patrick Oâ€Malley has been promoted to senior vice president of global product. 

Daniel A. Sullivan joins the Saucony team as vice president of product. Sullivan will be responsible for leading the footwear designers and product line managers. Sullivan returns to Saucony with nearly 15 years of running footwear experience, including senior product roles at New Balance, where he was most recently strategic business unit manager for running footwear. Sullivan got his start in the footwear industry with Saucony, serving in successive product marketing and management roles over his six-year tenure with the brand. He received his MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.

Mary Oâ€Brien, formerly vice president of marketing, has assumed the newly created position of vice president of international. Saucony expects to leverage Oâ€Brienâ€s international experience, specifically in the European market, where she previously held various senior level positions in international sales and marketing for Reebok International. Oâ€Brien will be directly responsible for Sauconyâ€s European and Middle East businesses and will work collaboratively with Collective Brands Performance + Lifestyle Groupâ€s (PLG) international division, a shared function supporting all the PLG brands, to further business development in other global markets well suited for Saucony.

“Weâ€re very fortunate to attract such talented and passionate people and to have such a high-performance team in place,” said Woodworth. “Both Dan and Mark are a natural fit with our brand culture and the whole team looks forward to the opportunity to work alongside them as we take the brand to its next phase of growth.”