How Did I Get Here?

Gert Boyle

Chairman, Columbia Sportswear
from
  • Education
  • Grant High School, Portland, Ore., class of 1943
  • University of Arizona, class of 1946
  • Work Experience
  • 1947–69
    Homemaker
  • 1970–98
    President, Columbia Sportswear
  • 1998–Present
    Chairman, Columbia Sportswear
  • Life Lessons
  • “You do what you have to do—and if you don’t know, you ask somebody.”
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  • “A lot of business is common sense.”
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  • “Don’t get hung up on ‘should’ve’—yesterday’s never gonna come around again, so get on with it.”
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  • Wrote One Tough Mother (Basic Books, 2005)
  • 1927
    “I’m Jewish, and I grew up south of Munich. My uncle lived in Portland, and that’s how we immigrated in 1937.”
  • “My husband ran my dad’s hat company. He took out a loan in September 1970 and died that December, at 47. Our house and my mother’s house were collateral. I was the only logical person to take over: a housewife who didn’t know anything.”
  • At work with her son, Tim, 1975
  • “We went public in ’98. There are advantages, but it’s difficult to please Wall Street and everyone who wants to get in your face. We reached $2.3 billion in sales last year.”
  • “Did you know I was kidnapped in 2010? I got home one day and opened up the garage door, and he took me at gunpoint. I pushed the right buttons on the security system, and the police came.”
  • “I got an MRS. He was a typical Irishman: good sense of humor, hard worker.”
  • With Neal, her soon-to-be husband, 1947
  • “We started advertising in 1984 with the Tough Mother campaign. In one, I put my son, Tim, through the car wash and said, ‘That’s the way we test our garments.’ Sales shot up. Tim took over as CEO in 1989.”
  • $89.99 in 1986; $200 today
    “The Bugaboo coat put us on the map. We’ve sold 5 million.”
  • “I do nine-tenths of the PR here, and I sign all the checks. And I’m in our ads again! You think I want to stay home with a bunch of old people? I get paid very well, and it takes a few dollars to really have a good time.”