Women’s athletic apparel brand Oiselle has welcomed Atsuko Tamura as President. Effective immediately, Tamura will join Oiselle Founder & CEO Sally Bergesen in leading the rapidly growing company with a focus on operations, finance, strategic growth via multiple channels, both established and soon to be announced.
Bringing Tamura on board allows Sally Bergesen the time and energy she needs to spend in continuing to lead Oiselle’s product strategies and marketing efforts. Tamura’s experience and skills are seen as a great complement to Bergesen, and they are excited about this opportunity to work together.
“I am humbled, honoured and excited to join Sally and Oiselle,” said Tamura. “It’s a rare opportunity to become a part of a brand with so much product, customer and community credibility. As they say in The Nest, ‘head up, wings out’. And I find myself wondering: is the sky really the limit? We’re on our way to finding out.”
Tamura joins Oiselle after an impressive career leading a number of brands to accelerated growth as President & CEO and Marketing & Financial leader at several companies. After she graduated from the University of Washington with her Business Degree, she received her CPA and had careers at both Ernst & Young as well as Microsoft before transitioning into the active lifestyle industry where she has spent the majority of her career.
As a former competitive swimmer, Tamura is connected to the sports & active lifestyle space and the companies whose vision, mission, values and brands she respects and for whom she feels that she can help make a positive difference.
Tamura is most noted for her impressive 12 year resume at REI. She joined REI as a Senior Tax Analyst and Accounting Department Supervisor and left as the Senior Vice President of Strategy, Marketing, Communications and Public Affairs.
She joined REI when it was a US$362 million company and saw it rise to a US$1.2 billion company when she departed in June 2006. During her time there, she was responsible for increasing traffic to all shopping channels, membership sales, supporting store growth strategies and renewing cross departmental relationships amongst key departments.
Tamura also helped shape REI’s corporate transformation to an omni-channel retailer while building a cross-departmental sales and strategy planning process.
Following her leadership positions at REI and two years as CFO & VP of Marketing at onlineshoes.com, Tamura spent 4 years as President & CEO at evo, a leading, action sports retailer. Tamura recapitalized evo’s balance sheet with new equity and nearly tripled revenue with three consecutive years of profit and positive cash flow.
Upon her departure with evo, Tamura took a year of advising and consulting founders and brands who she connected with and felt were genuinely making a difference in their related industries, and that is when she met Sally Bergesen, Founder & CEO of Oiselle.
“As we reach higher altitudes, it’s my top priority to bring on the right people at the right time,” said Sally Bergesen. “Atsuko has the ultimate combination of experience, heart, and talent QQ and knows what it takes to lead a fast-growing consumer brand. I’m honoured to have her at my side as we have some really exciting initiatives on the table for 2015 and beyond.”
Oiselle is an apparel company dedicated exclusively to the needs of women athletes. A French word for bird, Oiselle (pronounced wa-zell) alludes to athletic prowess, and a feeling of freedom and flight. Based in Seattle, Washington and founded in 2007, Oiselle aims to embody the notion that training and competing is more than a physical activity, but also a philosophy that helps women increase their courage, confidence and health.
