WATERLOO, Wis. (BRAIN) — Joe Vadeboncoeur, who has worked at Trek for 28 years, is departing the company at the end of December.
Vadeboncoeur started working in sales at Trek, covering a territory that included Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Through the years he took on product management for Gary Fisher; all of the bike and aftermarket product management groups for Trek, Fisher, Klein, Bontrager and Electra, handling Asian sourcing and all product development; overall marketing; and in the past two years he was responsible for global retail, working with Trek retailers as well as managing Trek’s company owned stores around the world as vice president of retail.
“After 28 years at Trek, starting a new direction is a really exciting prospect,” he said in an email to BRAIN. “The world is full of opportunities and I am eager to see what those are. I do not plan to do anything for a while, as there are a lot of great bike rides calling. But, I am also not done with creating something new and chasing great opportunities.”
“He’s been an enormous presence, from product and racing to retail,” Eric Bjorling, spokesman for Trek, told BRAIN. “Joe’s been amazing for so long. He’s made an extraordinary commitment to the company. We’re so proud of all the work he’s done. We wish him nothing but the best.”
Bjorling said Vadeboncoeur’s departure does not signal a shift in strategy or any major company changes. “It was time for him to make a change and move on,” he added.
“Over and over again, I have been given the opportunity to build something up in areas that we didn’t already have a business or a structure,” Vadeboncoeur said. “That is what made the 28 years at Trek so exciting. It has been an amazing ride. Trek is an amazing company with integrity, heart and soul. It is a company that truly loves cycling and lives cycling every day. I am proud to have been part of developing that heart and soul.”
Vadeboncoeur can be reached at his Trek email address over the next couple of weeks.
