Joe Hawk is now the head of Haro Bicycles and the family of brands. Joe has been in the business for a long damn time. He's been with Haro for the past 12 years as the VP of Sales and was with Raleigh for a bunch of years before that. It is easy to say that he has plenty of experience and knowledge of the industry. Plus, he's a darned nice guy (can I have an office with a window now?).
Sadly, about two weeks ago, Joe had an unfortunate surfing accident. As in he surfed the pavement on his arse while on a road ride. He tore up his shorts on both cheeks, so I'm not exactly sure how he did that. He also ripped up the Masi-embossed bar tape that I painstakingly wrapped his bars with. However, his Speciale Carbon frame is unscathed and will live to ride again. Once Joe is back to "normal", we'll get back to our usual routine of sprint workouts and hill repeat intervals. He's a workhorse and a lot faster than he looks, sitting there at his desk. His legs are like coiled springs, ready to pounce into action. He runs a tight ship and the sales people will be glad that he will now have more things to concentrate on, sharing the attention with the rest of us now.
All kidding aside, Joe really is a great guy and I have really enjoyed working with him so far. He and Jim Ford were/are very close and I know that Joe will work hard to maintain all the positives Jim worked so long to create. There is something very good about continuity sometimes. Joe is already busy rolling up his sleeves and investigating the new task at hand. Well, one of the first tasks is learning how to wrap handle bar tape.
Joe will hopefully have the kind of history to look back on that Jim Ford did. Though that is a tough task, Joe's got a good chance to do some significant good with this company.
So Boss, congratulations on the move up the ladder. Let me know if I can get you a coffee or wax your car. (I can use a little extra vacation time.)
Tim
6 comments:
Tim - you got a little something on your.....no a little to the left....closer.....close.......it's on the tip of your nose. There you got it. Nope, it's still there. Here, let me...nope, that ain't coming off. I think that's permanent. Sniff, sniff. Do you smell that?
You can tell he is a pretty good guy from the picture (or at the least you can tell that he is unpretentious). That certainly doesn't look like the office of a typical COO. I am sure that Haro will continue to do well with the new boss in place.
Office, hell, you should see his locker for unpretentious!
I remember one time I invited Joe to get some Sushi, This storey isn't so much interesting as it is long... He said he doesn't like raw fish, then he told me how he ate a California roll once, and was real proud that he tried Sushi. Well not to burst the bubble, but cooked crab rolled with some veggies and rice doesn't really count as Sushi. (why do all my stories revolve around food?)
Any who, I'm glad Joe is more knowledgeable about the bike industry than he is about Japanese cuisine. Joe is the perfect fit, and I know we will see great things come from his efforts!
t sucks to crash but thats rad that the bike held up so well. I also remember being quite surprised at how unscathed my carbon bike was after my downhill endo this summer.
A couple weeks ago I saw a carbon Orbea fixie on Fixed Gear Gallery that some guy had salvaged from some dumpster (#2388). It was crashed and the seatstay cracked and the owner junked it, but the finder patced it up with some fiberglass and resin and says it works fine.
Pretty cool, and says a lot about how carbon technology has advanced over a relatively short period.
>>Well not to burst the bubble, but cooked crab rolled with some veggies and rice doesn't really count as Sushi. <<
Actuaslly, it does. Shushi refer to the vinegared rice. Raw fish is just a common ingredient.
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