Mountain Hardwear announces new president

Joe Vernachio formerly served as VP of Global Product at The North Face. He will take the reigns at Mountain Hardwear next month.

Parent company of Mountain Hardwear, Columbia Sportswear, announces a new brand president today. Joe Vernachio, who has served as global vice president of product and operations at The North Face since 2011, will begin on April 3, 2017.

In his new role, Joe will be based at Mountain Hardwear’s headquarters in Richmond, California, where he will lead all aspects of Mountain Hardwear’s global brand positioning, go-to-market strategies and execution across all distribution channels.

“The Mountain Hardwear brand has a rich history of serving the high-performance needs of alpinists who challenge themselves and their equipment in extreme conditions, said Columbia President Bryan Timm in a press release. “Joe has spent his career building high-performance brands that appeal to passionate athletic and outdoor consumers. Joe brings a unique combination of product creation and global operations expertise to his new role, making him ideally suited to the role of brand president.”

Prior to his time at The North Face, Vernachio spent six years as chief operating officer and senior vice president of product and sourcing for Spyder Active Sports. “I have always admired Mountain Hardwear as a high-quality, premium, technical brand and believe it holds significant untapped growth potential,” Vernachio said. “I look forward to leading the Mountain Hardwear team in Richmond and working with our teammates in Portland and around the world to provide performance products that meet or exceed the expectations of alpinists everywhere.”

Hopefully, this new hire signals a new stability for the leadership at Mountain Hardwear. John Walbrecht, who signed on as president in March 2016, abruptly departed for Black Diamond after only six months on the job. Dennis Randall has been acting as interim president since then.