Brian Mecham, formerly U.S. general manager for Icebreaker, has been appointed to a similar job at Salewa North America, where the brands owned by the Italian group - Dynafit, Salewa, Wild Country and Pomoca - still have strong potential for growth. Mecham reports to Claes Broqvist, who joined the Oberalp Group in January as regional general manager. The previous general manager for Salewa in North America was Christopher Sword, who joined Oberalp in 2006 to establish and run its North American subsidiary in Boulder, Colorado, starting with the Dynafit and Silvretta brands. Mecham had been at the helm of Icebreaker in the U.S. from September 2014, after several years at Patagonia and at Black Diamond Equipment, where he was vice president of sales. Mecham left Icebreaker after the company decided earlier this year to merge some functions between its U.S. office in Portland, Oregon, and its operation in Vancouver, Canada. As reported by Stuff in New Zealand, the new North American functions are now based in Vancouver and led by Justin Walford, former general manager for Canada. They exclude global product design, online sales and the U.S. sales and marketing teams, which remain in Portland. The warehousing operations for the U.S. and Canada remain separated as well.

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