Baptiste Coulonque, 39, is the new general manager of Oxbow, the struggling surfwear brand owned by the Lafuma Group. He fills a void left by the departure of Matthieu Bazil at the end of 2011. Coulonque had been working at Rip Curl Europe since 2006, when he took charge of operations. he rose to the rank of general manager in 2009 when Olivier Cantet was made global chief executive of Rip Curl, while retaining the title of chairman and chief executive for the European operation. Coulonque previously worked for Danone, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Bristol-Myers Squibb. He will not be replaced at Rip Curl Europe as Cantet is going to spend more time in Europe, reorganizing operations in view of a difficult market situation that is apparently affecting all the surf brands. Cantet, who was a top manager of Lafuma before joining Rip Curl, will continue to act as global CEO of the company, which is still growing overall at a rate of more than 10 percent a year. More on Oxbow and Rip Curl at the beginning of June.

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