The Backcountry.com board of directors announced that Jonathan Nielsen officially took over as the retailer’s permanent CEO earlier this month. Nielsen had been serving as Interim CEO since December 2015, when Jill Layfield stepped down from the role.
Nielsen, 35, joined Backcountry in 2010 to lead the corporate development and strategy teams. Since that time, he has led the acquisition and integration of Competitive Cyclist, and subsequently served as EVP of Product Management and Design in 2012, managing product strategy and user experience design across the entire Backcountry portfolio. In 2014, his role expanded to include management of Backcountry’s adjacent category businesses, Competitive Cyclist and MotoSport, as well as European expansion via Bergfruende. Prior to joining Backcountry, Nielsen was a member of eBay’s corporate development team, where he focused on M&A transactions and corporate strategy, which included U.S. domestic and international acquisitions of adjacent marketplace, payments, mobile, and other local platform partners. Earlier in his career, Nielsen held technology investment banking roles at Piper Jaffray and various operating, marketing, and business development roles at Ancestry.com. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a B.S. in Finance.
“Jonathan is a proven leader with an exceptional track record of growing retail brands and delivering strong operating performance. We believe he is ideally positioned to lead Backcountry as it continues to execute on its growth strategy across its multiple brand, categories and geographies,” said Jennifer Baxter Moser, Board Member and Managing Director at TSG Consumer Partners LLC.
