Job Title
Vice President of R&D Footwear at Sole Technology.
Hometown
Great Falls, Montana. I grew up in San Diego, California.
Background
I’ve been working in the shoe industry for over 30 years now. For 10 of those years, I lived overseas in Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. I’ve been the director of R&D for companies like Airwalk, Pony and LA Gear. I was also the General Manager of overseas operations for Converse. While at Airwalk, I developed the first skate shoes and snowboard boots ever made in Asia.
Job description
I manage and oversee all the footwear operations at Sole Technology, including design, development, production, our overseas R&D office in Asia, quality assurance and the STI Lab.
What have you accomplished at the Sole Technology Institute so far?
I successfully transferred our production from Northern China to Southern China for better production, quality and innovation capabilities. I also restructured the R&D Department so that we could focus on developing the BEST skate footwear in the industry. Part of that restructuring included bringing in an advanced concepts team to work exclusively on technical projects, the building of a rapid prototyping model shop, and the building of the STI Lab for product and athlete testing.
What do you hope to accomplish in the future?
Continue to build Sole Technology’s reputation as a leader in action sports footwear, and to make more of the BEST footwear in the industry.
Do you have any personal future goals?
To continue building a world-class footwear team.
