Gérard Rubaud, 1941-2018

I never was very close to Gérard this savoyard from Aix-les-Bains, France, who held key jobs at Rossignol, first with the company's race department and later on as the president and head of marketing and sales in the USA from 1979 to 1982, under Jean Pierre Rosso, the head of Dynastar and Rossignol's joint American operations.

We first met in Tignes in November of 1974 and I found him rather intimidating, if not condescending. True, I was just beginning with Look at the time, didn't know much about the business, and we shared a World Pro Team with Rossignol where the ski company seemed to be calling the shots.

Later on I had a subsequent meeting with him about doing some joint advertising and still found him quite distant and a bit imperious. Yet, I must say that Rubaud was skilled in navigating a difficult, seasonal industry while working for a company that glorified its people one day and put them down harshly the next.

In spite of that, Gérard Rubaud was able to reinvent himself and go from executive, to entrepreneur and then to traditional French baker in a country that doesn't know much about good bread.

He deserves full credit for that and it's just unfortunate that he had to go while he only was 77, after a protracted heart disease. He'll be missed.