Consumer >> CEO Interviews >> October 6, 1999
TIMOTHY P. BOYLE is President and Chief Executive Officer of Columbia
Sportswear Company, the world's largest skiwear brand. Mr. Boyle
oversees general management of all operations of the active outdoor
apparel and footwear company from its Portland, Oregon headquarters. He
is directly involved in all aspects of the business, including national
and international distribution, product development, sales and
marketing, and financing and capital relations. The Oregonian has called
him one of the most successful men ever to wear a fishing vest to work.
Mr. Boyle also co-stars with his mother, Columbia Chairwoman Gert Boyle,
in the company's humorous, award-winning advertising campaign,
portraying the annoyed but compliant son of a demanding, perfectionist
mother. This campaign earned Columbia the coveted Marketing Innovation
award at the 1997 Super Show, an international sporting goods and
apparel trade show. Mr. Boyle's career with Columbia began in 1970 while
he was a senior at the University of Oregon. His father, who had been
running the company since 1964, died suddenly of a heart attack. Gert
was determined to continue the aggressive expansion her husband had
initiated and quickly enlisted Mr. Boyle's help. He was named Columbia's
president and chief executive officer in 1989. The company went public
in March 1998, and reported overall sales of $427.3 million in that same
year. In 1992, Mr. Boyle and his mother were co-recipients of Inc.
Magazine's Northwest Entrepreneur of the Year award. The award
recognizes top entrepreneurs who have demonstrated excellence and
extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial
performance, and personal commitment to their business and communities.
Mr. Boyle was also named one of the sports industry's 100 most
influential players four years in a row, from 1993-1996, by the trade
magazine Sportstyle. An alumnus of Jesuit High School (1967) and the
University of Oregon (1971, B.S. Journalism), Mr. Boyle is a board
member for several organizations, including the Pacific Crest Outward
Bound School and Jesuit High School. He also is a trustee of Reed
College and a member of the Young Presidents' Organization. Mr. Boyle
and his wife have two children. Profile
Columbia Sportswear Company.
Mr. Boyle: The company was founded in 1938 by my mother's parents. The
company has been
