John Lacy took over as CEO after the death of Burton’s founder Jake Burton Carpenter. Photo: John Lacy // Linkedin
The largest snowboard company in the world is going to have a new CEO. Current Burton CEO John Lacy has announced that he is stepping down from the position, according to a report in Shop Eat Surf Outdoor. Donna Carpenter, the wife and business partner of founder Jake Burton Carpenter, will step in as interim CEO until a replacement is found.
“After nearly 29 years with Burton, John and Donna have come to a mutual decision that it is time for John to pursue his next chapter beyond his role as CEO,” a company spokesperson wrote to Shop Eat Surf Outdoor. “He will remain with Burton through the end of June to support a smooth transition. No replacement has been named at this time.”
The decision brings to an end a long relationship between Lacy and Burton. He originally became the CEO in February 2020, following the death of founder Jake Burton Carpenter. However, Lacy’s rise to the top began over two decades earlier, when he started working the phones in rider service in 1997. From there, he worked his way up through nearly every facet of the business, including product development and global sales, senior vice president of snow products, becoming executive vice president of global product and North American sales, then executive vice president/chief product officer. In 2015 he was promoted to president, then became co-CEO alongside Donna Carpenter in 2018.
“John came up through product and ultimately became chief product officer,” Carpenter told SESO. “As you know, Jake was obsessed with product, so if a zipper didn’t work the right way, he would call John into his office to ‘talk.’ Let’s just say Jake was very detail-oriented in the product area. And what makes John a great leader is that he’s so open to learning. He just soaked up everything he could from Jake and at some point, I realized, ‘Hey, I think this kid wants to run this company someday.’
“And I told John, ‘You know, I can help you become a leader. I can help you on the culture side. I can help you on the community side and what it means to run a senior team.’ And, again, he soaked it up.”
We reached out to Burton for comment but have yet to hear back.
