Bruno Maier has spent 35 years in the bike industry, and by the time we sat down together, he'd lived through more chapters than most executives see in a career twice as long.

He's president and CEO of United Wheels, the company behind Huffy, All Light, and Batch, but that title barely covers how he got there. He started at Huffy, moved through Pacific Cycle, Cycling Sports Group, People for Bikes, and Rocky Mounts, then found his way back to Huffy more than once, each return different from the last.

We started with the people who shaped him early on, especially Chris Horning, the founder of Pacific Cycle, who taught him cost control and team building.

"The one thing that I think Chris gave me more than anything else was how to appreciate the people that help you get there."

He also talked about Tim Blumenthal at People for Bikes and Bill Smith, who brought him back to Huffy.

The real turning point wasn't a boardroom moment. It was becoming a father.

"When I was younger, I had all the energy in the world, I had all the work ethic. I had no empathy. It was charging to finish the job, without the perspective of the people I was working with, and in some cases, the people that I was running over to complete the task or the job at hand."

From there we walked through the chapters that followed: Boulder and People for Bikes, a stint at Rocky Mounts, the return to Huffy, and then All Light, the material sciences startup that partnered with the world's largest consumer electronics company. He later left to start a cargo bike business in New York, and just months later, the board called him back to take over as CEO.

That transition wasn't smooth. During his first week back, he called his wife with a different message than he'd hoped to deliver.

"I think I've made a huge mistake."

The industry was facing a global inventory crisis, but they turned 2024 into the best non-pandemic year the company has had.

We also got into what happens when leadership goes wrong, and Bruno described watching a strong culture change under new management.

"I watched what I thought was maybe the greatest culture I had ever worked in become a very toxic, very Fortune 100 type environment."

That experience shapes how seriously he takes the responsibility he carries now, with 2,500 employees depending on his decisions.

"That's probably the thing that keeps me up late at night, are we taking care of the employees well enough?"

One of my favorite parts of this conversation was Bruno's honesty about who he is behind the title. He's not the extroverted, always-confident executive people expect. He's an introvert who still questions whether he's the right person for the job.

We closed on persistence, and Bruno brought the conversation back to Leadville, the mountain bike race that humbled him more than he expected.

"I assumed, based on my speeds, my abilities, nine, nine and a half hours, I should be finished. Eleven and a half hours later, I crossed the finish line and it was heartbreaking."

That same mindset, he says, is what gets a business through its hardest years too.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

00:44 Meet Bruno Maier

02:03 Mentors that Shaped Him

07:35 Fatherhood and Empathy

12:41 Career Turning Points

17:39 All Light and New Ventures

21:23 Returning as CEO

23:17 Tariffs and Supply Chain Shift

25:36 Focus and Simplify for 2026

27:00 When Culture Turns Toxic

30:00 The Call to Come Back

31:34 CEO Call Comes Through

32:44 Global Business Lessons

34:19 China and Europe Travel

36:16 Choosing Roles by Fun

38:52 CEO Weight and Vision

42:31 Empowerment and Data

43:33 Team Leadership Mindset

45:54 Imposter Syndrome Revealed

48:17 Leading with Care

50:46 Persistence from Endurance

54:27 Advice for Early Careers

56:06 Gratitude and Family Roots

58:18 Lessons for His Sons

59:21 Closing

Seve Romero spent his entire career inside one organization. He started at 17 as a retail sales associate at Finish Line and worked his way up to Senior Vice President of HR for Finish Line and JD Sports. That's a long time in one place, and he'll be the first to tell you it never felt that way.

The athlete mindset comes up early, and it shapes a lot. He doesn't see himself as an HR leader:

"I don't look at myself as an HR leader or professional. I look at myself as a business leader, and what I try to do is obsess with every little detail about the business, even things that by and large in my day to day aren't at all HR responsibilities."

His path into HR was an accident. He was expecting a product merchandising internship and ended up in talent acquisition instead. It clicked immediately: to find the right people for a business, you first have to understand the business.

The single-company career is a big part of what we cover. Through acquisitions in both directions, Seve has worked inside environments that felt nothing like each other. While it's technically been one company, it's felt like ten. The biggest lesson from those transitions: you can't take a playbook from one environment and assume it works in the next.

He's finishing his MBA at Butler University, which he started at around 31, not for a promotion but because he genuinely wanted to go deeper into business. His advice for anyone considering continued education: get honest about your reason first.

The leadership development conversation is one of the strongest parts of the episode. Seve shares a story about a CFO who stepped into a general management role and was so skilled at consciously evolving how he led that, as he puts it, "who I was in this role, I need to be somebody different in this role." He also gets into what stretch assignments actually require, including making it safe for people to struggle and then stepping back to let them find their own way.

The question of how HR leaders get to a point where they genuinely shape business strategy comes up too. His view: you have to hold both things at once, and when employee interests and business needs don't align, the skill is being transparent about why.

Near the end, Seve shares that he's moving to the UK for a global talent development role. His own advice kicked in:

"I always tell people, especially early in career, just say yes. Somebody asks you to go do something, you can always go back to what you did before, but you may not always have that opportunity."

He closes with a thought worth sitting with:

"Being really, really good at your job doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be really, really good at your next job."

From there, the conversation turns to humility as a genuine growth tool: getting comfortable not having the answer, and why most people avoid doing exactly that.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

01:59 Athlete Mindset at Work

05:30 Falling Into Talent Acquisition

09:54 Career Bets and Big Moves

13:02 One Company Many Chapters

18:24 MBA for Real Growth

21:37 How Leaders Develop

26:24 Stretch Roles and Safe Failure

30:53 HR Serving People and Business

35:06 Leading Under Pressure

39:33 UK Move and Team Growth

45:18 Risk Taking With Intention

49:28 Advice for Rising Leaders

55:24 Pride and What Comes Next

59:30 Closing Thoughts

Greg Healy spent more than 30 years inside the global surf and action sports industry with Quiksilver and Boardriders, running regions across Asia Pacific, North America, and Europe. Before that, he was the youngest ever captain of an AFL football club in Australia, leading a team onto the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of 100,000 people.

We cover a lot of ground here. Greg talks about what team sport taught him about resilience, what it felt like to go from critic to accountable when the board handed him the keys to fix North America, and the honest truth about leading through Chapter 11. He speaks candidly about the Rossignol acquisition, what hubris costs, and what Oaktree Capital taught him about quality growth over growth for its own sake.

"Sometimes it's never as good as you think it is. Alternatively, it's never as bad as you think it is. You're only one bad decision away from life being in a very different position than it was yesterday."

We get into the Billabong integration, the cultural friction of merging two fierce competitors, and what it actually takes to build trust across a divided team. The COVID section is probably the most honest part of our conversation. Greg was projecting confidence he did not always feel, and he is straight about that gap.

"Your coach's talks every morning just got us through. We just needed to hear someone say: we're going to be right, keep on path, just keep doing what you're doing, and we'll get through."

We also dig into founder ego, when to bring in an operator, the challenge small brands face entering markets owned by the majors, and why Greg, at 60, still wants to be in the game.

"Financially, I don't need to work, but emotionally, I certainly do. I'm not ready to hang the boots up yet."

If you are building something or running something, there is a lot in this one.

---

Greg spent nearly 30 years with Quiksilver and Boardriders, covering Asia Pacific while stepping into the Americas and Europe when needed. His tenure covered the Quiksilver restructuring, Chapter 11 and transition to Oaktree Capital, and the Billabong integration. Former Boardriders CEO Dave Tanner called him a natural leader, culture carrier, and talent builder. He stepped down as CEO of APAC at Liberated Brands in August 2024.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

00:51 Meet Greg Healy

02:03 AFL Captain Lessons

03:33 Resilience From Sport

04:40 Fixing North America

05:40 Culture Shock Moment

07:46 Chapter 11 Reset

10:03 Ego Debt And Humility

11:54 Quality Growth Playbook

13:21 Turnaround Team Values

14:32 Cabo Momentum Shift

16:08 Acquiring Billabong

17:28 Merging Cultures Trust

21:35 Founders Ego and Operators

22:01 Leading Through COVID

26:23 Leases and Survival Detail

27:50 Lockdown Family Perspective

33:03 Quiksilver Cultural Heyday

35:25 When Global Brands Fracture

38:19 Small Brands and Channels

43:10 Why Work After Success

45:51 Advice For Stuck Founders

47:39 Global Expansion Nuances

50:24 Proudest Moments Legacy

52:03 How He Wants to Lead

53:09 Next Team And Farewell

Sara Lawhead has spent her career building things. Teams, products, brands, strategies. She has worked inside large public companies, navigated private equity environments, and managed multiple brands at a pace that left little room to think. Now she is leading Thacker NYC, a founder-led brand going after a consumer the outdoor industry has largely ignored.

"We think of life as a sport. No one is really talking to the everyday person. The outdoor industry tends to go after the core, the hardcore, the top of the mountain. But it is the everyday people that still want to get outside, still want to look the part. That is a big, unmet opportunity."

That shift, from managing six brands and fifty-plus products a year to building one brand with intention, is the backdrop for this conversation.

We cover what the outdoor market actually looks like right now, from trade show floors to retailer meetings. We get into tariffs and supply chain, and how the brands that came out ahead were the ones that started diversifying manufacturing before the pressure hit.

One of the more interesting threads is pattern recognition across categories, and what happens when private equity acquires founder-led brands.

"Once that special sauce, once that DNA has really left the business, it gets harder and harder to continue that passion and excitement. The DNA isn't there anymore. It gets sucked out."

Sara has a clear point of view on where brands lose the thread, how innovation is misunderstood, and what real partnership with specialty retail actually requires. She also talks about the BIRDS communication framework, a tool she uses with every team she joins.

"As a leader, you have to have the awareness of who you are talking to and how they receive information. The more you understand who you are talking to and how they operate, the better the business will go. Once you know it, you actually have to do it. That is the second battle."

We close on what Sara would tell someone early in their career.

"Figure out what you are good at. Not what you think is cool, not what everybody else is telling you to do. Chase that."

A conversation about building something real, reading the market honestly, and knowing when to move and when to wait.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

02:07 Founder Led Pace Shift

04:04 Trade Shows And Market Signals

06:15 Life As a Sport

08:41 People-first Building Blocks

11:02 DIY Mindset No Roadmap

12:33 Athlete Pressure Lessons

15:32 Compassionate Leadership Birds

18:42 Top to Top Retail Strategy

20:47 Tariffs and Supply Diversification

23:36 Pattern Recognition In Categories

26:52 Winning Retailer Confidence

29:28 Partnership with Specialty Retail

30:25 Staying True to Brand

31:29 Compromise Without Dilution

33:10 Redefining Innovation

34:22 Colorways That Sell

35:21 Decide and Ship

37:16 Pleasant Persistence

39:58 Follow Up Early

40:48 Relationships Beat Automation

41:28 Hiring a Sales Agency

42:36 Conviction Without Playbook

47:13 Slow Build Strategy

49:45 Healthier Leadership Mindset

51:53 Entrepreneurship and Expansion

52:35 Fashion Meets Function

57:25 Books That Shape Focus

59:22 Advice for Year Two

01:02:19 Go Until Stopped

01:03:24 A Good Life Vision

I'm excited to share my conversation with Mike Cachat, a pioneer in our industry and someone I've known for many years.

Mike's journey from building a small bike repair business as a teenager to founding Jenson USA is a testament to seeing the future, perseverance, and innovation.

This episode is for you if you enjoy learning about the ups and downs of entrepreneurship and leadership or seek inspiration in growth and resilience.

Streaming on all podcast platforms, or watch on YouTube & Spotify.

Enjoy your day!

🏔 🚲 🌿 – Tony

I’m so happy to share this conversation with Nancy Dynan, someone I’ve had the privilege of knowing both professionally and personally. Nancy’s journey from the rowing world to the C-suite is nothing short of inspiring. We talk through her career evolution, the lessons she’s learned, and how she’s built strong, successful teams with LL Bean, prAna and NIXON to name a few. If you’re curious about aligning personal values with professional growth, this episode is a must-listen. Enjoy the insights, the wisdom, and a few surprises along the way.

Today, I sit down with a marketing maven with deep roots in the outdoor, endurance sports, nutrition, and fashion industries.

Christian Lepley takes us through his journey from an ad agency to spearheading innovative campaigns for Levi Strauss & Co., The North Face, a VF Company, and GU Energy Labs.

Listen now to hear us discuss launching buzz-worthy campaigns and professional pizza making.

Christian's curated magazine list

Like The Wind

https://www.likethewindmagazine.com/

Adventure Journal

https://adventure-journal.com/

Trails Magazine

https://trailsmag.net/

Monocle

https://monocle.com/

01:28 Christian's entry point into the outdoor industry

04:20 MO when taking on VP of Marketing at GU Energy Labs

08:51 Creating Buzzworthy content

09:17 We don't know exactly

10:21 creating emotion

10:58 Most powerful emotions

16:09 Do you need to be authentic?

20:33 Difference between agency side versus brand side

29:50 Endemic or general Marketing agencies in the outdoor industry

33:05 Transitioning your marketing from agency to in-house

Highline Outdoor Group

https://www.highlineoutdoor.com/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/outdoorindustryrecruiter/

Tony O'Neill sits down with Keith Denny, an outdoor and athletic footwear pioneer.

With a career spanning decades working at iconic brands such as Keen, Converse, Timberland, and Nike, Keith has grown businesses with integrity and excellence, focusing on people development and innovative product creation.

He shares his experiences and insight into the industry, stressing the importance of strong team culture, effective consumer insight and the necessity of innovation for growth. Keith also highlights the significance of sustainability and the future of the industry.

Keith Denny's book recommendations

Leaders Eat Last

https://a.co/d/cN0YWva

The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

https://a.co/d/b6BY9oO

01:13 Nike Rep brings a bag of shoes to choose from

02:39 Second part of this clip

05:59 Hiring the right fit for Nike retail

06:38 Nike Ekin Team

13:51 Using consumer insights

22:08 Overcoming challenges to grow Timberland globally

26:14 Building culture on a global scale

29:17 Global culture in the footwear industry

31:40 Balancing brand integrity, innovation and P&L globally

40:16 Outdoor Industry Sustainability Progression

Highline Outdoor Group

https://www.highlineoutdoor.com/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/outdoorindustryrecruiter/