Brooks Running CEO Jim Weber will step down

Long-time general director of the corporate Berkshire Hathaway Brooks Running executive Jim Weber will step down after greater than 20 years in the highest job, the corporate announced Tuesday.

Brooks veteran Dan Sheridan, who joined the corporate in a marketing role in 1998 and rose to chief operating officer and president, will take over on April 26.

Weber, who brought Brooks to the brink of bankruptcy, guided it through 4 different owners and built a brand value greater than a billion dollars, told CNBC he was sad to step down and leave what he called “the best job in the world.” However, after recovering from cancer several years ago, he said he desired to “call back” and find more balance in his life.

“I’m extremely happy with what we’ve got built. I’ve been CEO for 23 years, and if I add two years as a board member, that is 25 years, so it has been a extremely great time,” Weber said in an interview. “We have a company that has achieved a lot and has incredible opportunities as we look to the future. We have momentum now.”

Sheridan inherits what he called a thriving business. Over the past few years, he has taken on a larger role in building it as Weber prepares it for takeover.

Last year, Brooks achieved sales of $1.2 billion, up more than 5% globally. Much of this growth occurred in North America, where the company generates approximately 80% of its total revenues.

Looking to the future, Sheridan is focused on global expansion and growing Brooks’ product offerings. This includes plans to build Brooks Running’s first store in China, which Sheridan says is an “absolute growth market” for the brand. He said the company also aims to expand direct sales in the U.S. and develop wholesale partnerships in Europe.

“I’m lucky because not many new CEOs can step in and inherit what I would call a solid business, a solid culture and a solid brand, and our strength is quite unique,” ​​Sheridan said. “So I don’t have a change, I don’t have to come in and make radical changes.”

Shortly after Brooks Running became a stand-alone subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway in 2012, Weber and his team were asked to begin succession planning. Weber said they began to “formalize” and “professionalize” the method that ultimately led to Sheridan’s nomination.

“Warren Buffett famously asked every CEO for a letter every year. The letter had to say who your successor was, and he didn’t open it unless he had to,” Weber said. “So we did that and… we started taking succession planning really seriously.”

As Sheridan rose through the ranks from sales manager to executive vp overseeing global sales, his “insatiable” desire, curiosity and ambition to learn more in regards to the company caught Weber’s attention, the outgoing CEO said.

He identified Sheridan as someone who aspired to leadership at a better level. Over the past five years, Weber has introduced his current successor to quite a lot of areas of the business, covering every little thing from strategy and marketing to corporate functions resembling legal and finance. As it became more clear over the past two years that Sheridan would take over Weber’s responsibilities, the brand new CEO was in a position to take control and implement the strategy.

“His fingerprints over the last 24 months are on our strategy,” Weber said.

While Sheridan has been exposed to each aspect of the business and is “ready” for the highest job, his biggest challenges lie ahead, Weber said. Competitive running is a shiny spot in a hard-pressed footwear market, but Sheridan will face an uncertain economy, supply chain disruptions, fierce competition and the ever-changing whims of the goal consumer, to call just a couple of obstacles.

“I think what I learned most from working with Jim is that in these extremely difficult roles, judgment is the most important thing for any leader,” Sheridan said. “Judgment is something that’s gained through experience, but additionally it is something that could be gained by listening rigorously to the team around you. So I’m sharpening my judgment for the long run… and that was something that Jim ingrained in me and helped me fine-tune.”