WaterMark has appointed Amy Buckalter, a 20-plus-year sales and marketing veteran in the outdoor and sporting goods arenas, as its new senior vice president of global sales and marketing. Buckalter has worked with WaterMark since August 2004 in a consulting capacity, helping the company strengthen its retailer relations, improve sales performance and practices, and drive the successful launch of new products for 2005. She will oversee all sales and customer service functions, as well as all trade and consumer marketing.

“Amy is one of the best sales minds in the outdoor industry-period,” said Jim Clark, CEO of WaterMark. “Amy will help us drive our company’s growth, as well as ramp up our already high level of service to our retail partners. With the addition of Amy and Steve Rodden, our new product development VP, we are well on the way to rounding out the powerful leadership team that will move our products, sales and company to ever higher levels of performance.”

Most recently, Buckalter was vice president of global sales for Burton, where she brought about improvements in their global sales and service model across five brands. Previously, she served as women’s commercial director at Nike, where she was an integral part of the senior team that led sales, retail and marketing strategies to grow Nike’s women’s business.

Before Nike, she served as a vice president and general manager of K2 Corporation and managed a group of 60 people that launched the North American in-line skate division and built it in three and half years to a #1 position in the market. Buckalter also held executive positions with Ryka, Rollerblade and Ellesse USA. She holds a Master’s degree in Sport Management from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Sociology from Hamilton College in Clinton, NY.

“I have had a unique opportunity these past six months to take a good look under the hood at WaterMark, which has enabled me to work with the team to begin envisioning the multiple possibilities for industry leadership and significant growth,” said Buckalter. “The business priorities are clear and the future extremely exciting; we will be laser focused on turning up the horsepower within sales and service, dialing in a highly efficient go-to-market process to improve product and program execution, and re-vitalizing an absolutely compelling value proposition for our retail partners to enhance the consumer experience wherever the destination of play. Stay tuned.”