02 Aug Amer Sports Bolsters Americas Marketing Team
Amer Sports, which owns the Salomon, Atomic and Suunto outdoor brands, bolstered its marketing team in the Americas with the hires of Jon Feeney to the role of senior trade marketing manager – Americas and Megan Porteous as digital marketing manager – Americas.
Concurrently, Salomon announced a trio of moves for its U.S. marketing team, including the hire of long-time brand consultant Joe Johnson and new positions for Marketing Manager – Endurance Josh Korn and Marketing Associate Mike Ambrose. All five will be based out of Salomon’s U.S. headquarters in Ogden, Utah.
“Jon’s customer experience and trade marketing acumen comes hard-earned over a long career spread across a variety of market sectors,” said Amer Sports Americas Marketing Director Jordan Judd. “He is a proven leader in sales and marketing, having most recently led double-digit growth in sell-through at retail at Smith & Wesson. Megan and Jon add a great depth of perspective to our team in Ogden. Most importantly, they’re great people, and we’re excited to welcome them to the greater Ogden community.”
Feeney brings to Amer Sports a diverse background accrued over 15 years in the sporting goods, apparel, footwear and consumer packaged goods industries, including leadership posts in consumer experience for Nike and Apollo Group, Inc. He will lead the development and execution of trade marketing programs with an emphasis on key account, in-store and trade marketing plans across the Salomon, Suunto, Mavic and Atomic brands. Feeney is a graduate of the University of South Florida, a hiker and fisherman and a cigar-box guitar builder.
Porteous arrives at Amer Sports having most recently served as marketing director at sports nutrition brand Designer Protein. Prior to that, Porteous spent seven years working in digital media and sports marketing, including a long stint at Oakley, where she managed the brand’s athletes and Olympics activations. At Amer Sports, Porteous works across marketing and commercial teams to bolster consumer engagement by telling great stories and delivering best-in-class digital experiences for target consumers. Porteous is a graduate of Santa Clara University, where she played on the women’s volleyball team that reached the 2004 Final Four.
“Megan is an absolute rock star. Her hiring is one of a handful of personnel moves that give our marketing team a significant boost,” said Salomon U.S. Brand Manager Jenny Taylor. “The U.S. is more a focus for our brand than ever before and we’re composing a team of great marketers—and people—that can help us tell the rich brand story of Salomon in ways we’ve never been able to before.”
Trio of Salomon Moves Bring Focus to U.S. Category Marketing
Johnson, who will assume the position of marketing manager – outdoor, formerly worked with Salomon as an account manager with Outside Media, where he contributed to award-winning marketing campaigns for clients including Alta Ski Area. Working across the alpine and backcountry ski, hike and mountaineering categories in the U.S., Johnson will act as a hub for all aspects of the go-to-market marketing mix, with an emphasis on sports and community marketing, brand activation, consumer engagement, key initiative execution, marketing program implementation, marketing toolbox delivery, and demand creation. He is a graduate of Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, a connoisseur of blower powder days and a yard games enthusiast.
Ambrose comes to Ogden via New England, where he has served as Salomon’s and Suunto’s tech rep since May 2015. Prior to joining Amer Sports, Ambrose worked as store manager at Vertical Runner Breckenridge in Colorado, where he acted as a buyer, grassroots team manager and marketing and social media manager. In his new position, Ambrose will provide the Salomon marketing team key tactical support across all areas of GTM marketing.
Finally, Korn, a Salomon employee since 2011, will lead all aspects of Salomon’s regional marketing for the endurance categories. As marketing manager – endurance, Korn is responsible for the localization and execution of the global brand Initiatives for running and Nordic skiing in the Americas. Working alongside Johnson, Josh will fill a critical role working with event and media partners, athletes, external marketing agencies, and the sales team.
Based in Finland, publicly traded Amer Sports’ brand portfolio also includes Wilson, Arc’teryx, Precor, Suunto and Mavic. Amer Sports shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki stock exchange (AMEAS).