STOCKHOLM, Sweden (BRAIN) — MIPS, the maker of a system intended to reduce brain injury from rotational impacts, has hired three long-time helmet industry executives.
Greg Shapleigh, who worked with the Giro brand from 1990 until leaving the brand's current owner, Vista Outdoor, earlier this year, is joining MIPS as a strategic advisor and will work from California.
"This is a significant time in the evolution of helmets and I'm very happy to be in a position to contribute to making them better meet the needs of all users," Shapleigh said. "Our knowledge and understanding of the brain, and how it gets injured, is developing very rapidly, and MIPS is playing a leading role in applying this information to enhance helmet performance."
Josefin Löwgren is the new head of marketing at MIPS. She has experience in international sports and consumer business and worked for the last 12 years at POC, most recently as brand manager.
"I'm very pleased to work at MIPS with such a strong team of people and with products that make a difference. Through my experience of brand building I feel that there is a great opportunity for me to bring new energy to the company and take the brand communication to the next level," Löwgren said.
Pietrzak joined MIPS in January as head of innovation. He comes from the Vista Outdoor group where he was director of R&D for Bell Powersports. He has been in the outdoor industry for 26 years.
"I have been developing helmets for the past 15 years because it literally makes a difference in people's lives," he said.
"By designing, developing, and testing helmets I get the immense satisfaction of knowing the product I created simply allowed someone to continue with the sport they enjoy after an accident, or on a more fundamental level, helped saved their life. For me MIPS is the next progression of that passion. The strength of my belief in the MIPS product to help protect people from brain injuries drove me to sell everything I owned in California (house, car, furniture) and move to Stockholm, Sweden, with nothing more than two bags and my bike. Now, instead of only developing helmets for one brand, I have the ability to help protect more people by working with all the helmet brands who incorporate MIPS technology into their product."
MIPS has 23 employees at its Stockholm headquarters. The company had sales of 98 million SEK ($12 million) last year. BRG, then the parent of Bell and Giro, invested in MIPS in 2014.
