Our friends over at Cairn continue to grow, moving into new digs and hiring rock stars. Most recently, the Bend startup announced that it’s hired Mona West to be the company’s new Chief Product Officer. In this newly created position, Mona will oversee the strategic direction of the company’s product offering and relationships with brand partners, according to a news release.

Mona West, Cairn Chief Product Officer

From Cairn:

West comes to Cairn with an impressive background in product management and marketing. She joins Cairn from Cascade Designs, where as Vice President of Emerging Brands she spearheaded the growth of numerous brands including Platypus®, SealLine®, and PackTowl®. Prior to that she drove marketing strategy for Therm-a-Rest® and MSR®. West combines this deep outdoor industry experience with expertise from leading consumer product and retail brands at Fortune 200 companies including Ste Michelle Wine Estates, where she oversaw the significant expansion of their wine subscription box programs, Amazon.com, and General Mills.

“Cairn is changing the outdoor industry by creating a like-minded community fueled by inspiration, trust, data and innovation,” said Cairn CEO Rob Little. “The products we feature in our monthly boxes are innovative and resonate with Cairn’s passionate community of outdoor lovers and adventure seekers. Mona’s product expertise, strong track record of growing brands and zeal for the outdoors makes her an important addition to the Cairn executive team.”

In addition to her work experience, Mona holds leadership positions with many industry associations. She serves on the Board of Directors for Washington’s National Park Fund and the North Cascades Institute, on the Advisory Council for The Mountaineers and is a mentor for Camber Outdoors, a group that strives to increase the number of women holding leadership roles in the outdoor industry.

She is also a graduate of Yale University and received her MBA at the University of Virginia – Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

“In a short period of time, Cairn has developed a tremendous amount of loyalty and trust among outdoor lovers,” Mona says. “We have an exceptional team, and I’m excited to help the company expand its first-rate product assortment, forge new relationships with established and emerging brands, and continue to inspire its community with products, programs and ideas that excite and encourage them to get outside.”

Kelly Kearsley

Kelly Kearsley

Kelly Kearsley, the co-founder of StartupBend.com, is passionate about startups, entrepreneurship and Bend. In addition to writing this blog, she creates content and manages content projects for global financial companies, tech firms and startups. She began her career as a newspaper journalist and later worked as a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in WSJ.com, Money Magazine, CNNMoney, MSNBC and Runner's World. See her work at kellykearsley.contently.com or kellykearsley.com.

You can reach Kelly by email at [email protected].
Kelly Kearsley

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