Dorel News

Dorel’s Recreational Segment Makes Key New Hires To Support 2015 Strategic Agenda

Montreal, Quebec -

Dorel Industries, Inc. (TSX: DII.B, DII.A) is kicking-off 2015 in its recreational business by announcing a number of new hires and promotions to support its strategic agenda for 2015. At the same time, Dorel is announcing a change of name for its recreational segment from Recreational/Leisure to Dorel Sports to better represent the business as it expands the brand portfolio across channels and geographies.

“We have good momentum in our business as we enter 2015 and I’m excited about the upcoming year,” said Peter Woods, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dorel Sports. “We’ve made a number of exciting new hires and promotions to support key elements of our growth strategy in 2015, in particular our focus on developing and delivering industry-leading product innovation, the lifeblood and heritage of our company.”

“Dorel Sports is deeply committed to product innovation as a key driver of the business” said Scott Rittschof, who joined the company as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cycling Sports Group (CSG) in September 2014. Since then he has been active in making a number of key hires to support the innovation agenda, including

  • Damon Rinard is joining in January 2015 as the new Engineering Manager – Road, CSG. Damon comes from Cervélo Cycles where he was a Senior Advanced R&D Engineer and Race Engineer with the Cervélo Test Team. Damon also served previously as R&D Engineer, Advanced Concept Group for Trek Bicycle Corporation. Damon will manage the R&D team for all CSG road bike projects, and apply his deep experience in Computational Fluid Dynamics and wind tunnel analysis to our ongoing and future developments. He will also be working directly with our athletes to incorporate their feedback into our designs and to optimize their fit and position for race-winning performance.
  • Jeremiah Boobar has joined as Director of Suspension Technology, CSG. Jeremiah comes from SRAM in Colorado Springs where he envisioned, developed and launched the industry-defining Pike suspension platform and Reverb height adjust seat post. Jeremiah will provide vision and direction over all suspension spec and suspension development across all CSG brands and product segments.
  • Ben Ward has joined as the new BMX Product Manager for GT. Ben is a well respected BMX Brand Manager and Product Designer, experienced in domestic and overseas manufacturing with a decade in the bicycle industry with brands including Fit and Odyssey. He has spent over 30 years as a BMX rider. Ben will provide vision and leadership over the development of GT’s legendary BMX product lineup.
  • Markus Spenninger has joined as Engineering Manager – E-bike and Urban in CSG’s R&D facility in Freiburg, Germany. With a strong and diverse engineering background, including time at BMW and Specialized, Markus brings first-hand knowledge of the European market and depth of industry experience that will help CSG stay on the forefront in these important developing segments. As the senior manager in CSG Freiburg, Markus will lead all engineering projects for E-bike/Urban and oversee the daily operation of that office.

In addition to these positions, Dorel Sports has also been strengthening its back office functions to enhance its supply chain and improve product availability to customers and consumers. To that end, the company is making investments in people to lead those functions, including:

  • Daniel Mendes will be moving in January 2015 to Wilton, CT from the Caloi organization in Brazil, and has been promoted to the newly created role of Vice President – Global Strategic Procurement. In this role, Daniel will focus on the sourcing of all components and parts across Pacific Cycle, CSG and Caloi. Daniel has over 12 years of experience with Caloi in various procurement and supply chain roles. This move marks a new development in Dorel Sports’ talent strategy as the company leverages its global scale by transferring key employees across geographies and businesses.
  • Preston Akers has joined Dorel Sports as the Director, Quality & Compliance and will be responsible for driving quality control and processes across Pacific Cycle and CSG. Preston has more than twenty years of experience in Quality and Compliance working for Eddie Bauer and Land’s End.
  • Julie Redfield has joined Dorel Sports as the Senior Vice President, Human Resources. Prior to joining Dorel Sports she held a number of executive HR roles including Managing Consultant at PA Consulting, North American HR Lead for Victorinox Swiss Army and VP, Talent and Organization at Diageo. Julie’s HR agenda for 2015 is focused on embedding strong talent management practices from attraction through employee engagement while driving organizational effectiveness across all divisions of Dorel Sports.
  • Dhiresh Jethwa has joined Dorel Sports as Vice President and Chief Information Officer and now leads the company’s global Information Technology organization. Previously, he held a number of senior information technology roles including CIO for Gerber Scientific as well as senior IT roles at Christie’s, SIRVA and E&J Gallo.

“I’m confident these roles will help us deliver on the incredible potential of our brand portfolio by driving our industry-leading innovation agenda while ensuring we deliver on superior execution across our supply chain and back office functions. I look forward to a successful year in 2015 with our dealers and retailers worldwide,” concluded Woods.

ABOUT DOREL SPORTS

Dorel Sports, formerly known as Dorel Recreational/Leisure, is a segment of Dorel Industries, Inc. (TSX: DII.B, DII.A), with one of the most comprehensive ranges of brands in the bicycling industry around the world, including Cannondale, Schwinn, GT, Mongoose, Caloi and SUGOI. Dorel creates style and excitement in equal measure to safety, quality and value. Dorel has annual sales of US$2.4 billion and employs approximately 10,500 people in facilities located in twenty-five countries worldwide.