Title: CEO

Company: Rossignol

Bio: In August 2008, Quiksilver announced it was selling its Rossignol Group for 100 million Euros, or $147.3 million at current exchange rates, to the Macquarie Bank of Australia, Chartreuse & Mont Blanc (headed by former Rossignol CEO Bruno Cercley) and the U.S. consumer products company the Jarden Corporation. Quiksilver bought Rossignol for approximately $320 million in 2005.  Bruno Cercley, who led Rossignol until 2005, took back the reins in November 2008, following the transaction.  Charged with a painful restructuring process, Cercley reportedly expected sales to fall, citing that, while revenue should remain stable in Western Europe, Rossignol's largest market, it could fall 10 percent to 15 percent in the rest of the world, including North America, where it generates 30 percent of its sales. To stem losses, Rossignol stopped producing skis, boots, boards and bindings for two months in winter of 2009, a move that reduced the staff size from 1400 to about 700 people, and forced all of their athletes to take a 50% pay cut. Cercley owns 2 percent of Rossignol, Macquarie holds 81 percent, and the remaining 17% is in the hands of Jarden, which also owns the K2 and Volkl ski brands. Dynastar skis, Lange boots and Look bindings are under the Rossignol umbrella, indicating Cercley's faith in a brighter future for hardgood sales globally.   

Title: CEO

Company: Quiksilver

Bio: Over the last decade, Bob McKnight has led Quiksilver through a rise, fall (and rise again?) that is characterized by its fusion of surf and skate with snow sports. Today Quiksilver operates over 600 stand-alone stores in major cities across Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific, Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa. The company that, some say, is synonymous with surf culture, launched the "Winter Sports Division" in 1996.  Shortly after, the company acquired Mervin Manufacturing, Inc., the manufacturer and wholesaler of Lib Technologies and Gnu snowboards and Bent Metal bindings.   Unbeknownst to McKnight at the time, Quik delved deeper into the snow industry in 2004 with the purchase of DC Shoe Company, skate institution, that later began manufacturing hard and soft goods in the snow market.  It was in 2005 when Quiksilver purchased Ski Rossignol and its holdings for $560 million that McKnight's surf company made its most dramatic (and likely regrettable) move - one that blurred the line between surf/skate and ski/snowboard manufacturing and made Quiksilver the reigning king "parent company" in the snow sport industry. It was Ski Rossignol's vast hold and rich history in skiing that weighted the implications of the acquisition.  Following entrance and growth in the US market in the 1970s, Rossignol became the world's largest ski manufacturer. Along with Rossignol came the companies it owned including Dynastar, Look, and Lange.  After 3 years and a hardgood market that plummeted with the weak economy, Quiksilver sold Rossignol for $147 million to a former Rossignol chief executive, Bruno Cercley.  The logo for quicksilver is inspired by a Japanese woodblock print called "The Great Wave Off Kanagawa"; like the tide, Bob McKnight and Quiksilver rise again. In December 2010, Quiksilver Inc. (ZQK) stock price reportedly jumped nearly 20 percent after French newspaper La Tribune speculated that the French-owne