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Changes atop Polaris snow division


Bontz

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I came across this yesterday, while reading some of the Brian Dick commentary.  It sounds like a good opportunity/promotion for Chris Wolf but man ... sure gonna miss having him running the show as Chris lived & breathed Polaris snowmobiles.  Sounds like he'll still be very connected to the snow division, since he'll be responsible for ALL product quality.

 

Polaris Announcement

At Polaris, longtime President of Snowmobiles Chris Wolf was promoted to a “c” suite position – he’s the company’s new Chief Product Excellence, Quality and Safety Officer. He slide into an upgraded spot vacated by Todd Gross, who retired out of the position.

 

Wolf has been with Polaris for nearly 20 years, and spent the vast majority of that time in the snowmobile division.  He was popular among us snowmobile media types – he’s always been engaging, personalable and smart, and also is a true snowmobile enthusiast who grew up enjoying the sport.

Replacing Wolf in the top snowmobile position is John Stockman – his title will be VP and General Manager of Snow, reporting to Steve Menneto, the President of Off-Road.  

Stockman has been with Polaris since 2015, first as a director for the Global Electric Motorcars, then as VP and GM of commercial and government business, and, since 2018, VP of Strategic Initiatives, Corporate Partnerships and Boat Integration. Prior to joining Polaris, according to Stockman’s LinkedIn profile, he was at General Mills for two different extended stints – 2001-2009 and 2011-2015, with the gap in between working for Cereal Partners Worldwide. He’s listed as a BA graduate of St. Olaf College before earning his MBA at Harvard Business School.    

“Our Snow business has just experienced one of its strongest years to date. John’s strategic approach and tremendous track record of furthering business results makes him the right leader to build on Snow’s incredible momentum as we continue to grow and invest in this segment,” Steve Menneto said in a press release from Polaris.

Commenting on Wolf’s new position, Polaris’ new CEO Mike Speetzen said, “Polaris has set out to make product safety and quality a competitive advantage and accelerate how we deliver on our commitment to product excellence across all our brands and businesses globally. Elevating this role reinforces those goals and the importance of this work. Over the course of his career, Chris has been a terrific advocate for our customers. Along with his extensive leadership experience and robust engineering and technical background, Chris’ deep understanding of our businesses, products and processes will be a tremendous asset to our efforts to deliver safe, quality vehicles.”

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  • 4 months later...

I look at it as a positive.  Gaining another leader up top that is snow driven and from what I've seen of John I expect continuing leadership at that level.  I work for a german company and they have a saying that the fish stinks from the head, meaning the best way for a company to run smoothly is to have the right leadership throughout the organization.

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  • Trying to pay the bills, lol



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