Columbia Sportswear announced additional moves in the strategic realignment of its corporate management, as part of an ongoing reassessment of its organizational structure. The process began in March with the appointment of Joe Vernachio at the head of the struggling Mountain Hardwear brand.
Among other changes, Columbia Sportswear has appointed Jim Swanson as its new senior vice president and chief financial officer from the start of July. He takes over from Tom Cusick, who will become executive vice president and chief operating officer. Swanson has been the group's vice president of finance for the past two years. He has spent a total of 14 years at Columbia Sportswear, serving in a variety of key positions.
At the same time, the group announced that Peter Rauch has been appointed as senior vice president and chief transformation officer, from the start of July as well. He will lead the “transformation office” that was established as part of the ongoing business assessment launched by Columbia Sportswear early this year.
This change is another internal promotion, since Rauch has been with the company from 2008, starting as retail accounting manager. His assignments since then have focused on finance, including senior financial controller in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and chief financial officer of the group's joint venture in China. Since August 2016 Rauch has been vice president and chief accounting officer. Swanson and Rauch will both report to Cusick.
At the top of the new management structure, Tim Boyle, who has been the chief executive of the company since 1988, is going to take a more hands-on approach to get the group out of its recent doldrums. He has resumed the additional role of president, which he had previously held until the nomination of Brian Timm during a top management reshuffle two years ago.
The change of roles for Boyle and the apppontment of new executives who will report to him came after the group announced three weeks ago the departure of Timm after 20 years with Columbia Sportswear. He had served most recently as president as well as chief operating officer. He had been touted as Boyle's possible successor in the leading role at some point.
At the group's head office, two executive vice presidents are being given new responsibilities as part of the realignement. Tom Cusick, who has been serving lately as the company's chief financial officer, has been promoted to the role of chief operating officer, taking the place left vacant by Timm's departure. He will continue as CFO and treasurer until a successor is appointed.
Another veteran of the group, Peter Bragdon, who has been the company's chief administrative officer, general counsel and secretary since 2015, will assume oversight of the company's international distributors and expand his current responsibilities by handling government affairs, internal relations and corporate communications.
There will also be some important changes in terms of regional management. Franco Fogliato, who has done a good job as the executive in charge of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region since 2013, is being moved to the U.S. to oversee all the wholesale and direct-to-consumer (DTC) operations of the group in North America, which have gone through challenging times.
His position will be taken over by Matthieu Schegg, who has served as director of DTC sales in Europe since he joined the company in 2015. Fogliato has been promoted from senior vice president to executive vice president and Schegg has been promoted to vice president. Both will serve as general managers, in charge of the Americas and EMEA, respectively.
Meanwhile, Doug Morse, a 22-year veteran of the group who ran its European operations briefly before Fogliato's appointment to the region, has been promoted from vice president to senior vice president, in charge of “emerging brands” and the Asia-Pacific region. In this new role, he will supervise the brand leaders of Mountain Hardwear, Prana and Sorel. At the same time, he will oversee the company's operations in Japan, China and Korea. Morse was most recently a vice president of the group with the titles of chief business development officer and general manager of distributors in Latin America and Asia-Pacific (LAAP).
Last but not least, Joe Boyle, son of Tim Boyle, has been promoted from senior vice president to executive vice president. He will continue to be in charge of brand management and design for the Columbia brand with the title of brand president.
