Kent Ebersole is the President of Outdoor Industry Association (OIA). An outdoor industry veteran, Ebersole came to OIA in August of 2022 with a broad range of experience in media, business strategy, and non-profit consulting. Kent spent his early days in the outdoor industry with Rodale and Active Interest Media, managing the business of the outdoor media brands, including Backpacker, Climbing, Ski, and Warren Miller. More recently, he had been consulting for nonprofits, including a project reforming an organization’s business model. He has served on the Camber Board of Directors for the past six years, contributing his leadership and development skills.
Kent brings these skills to his role at OIA, in addition to many years of industry connections, sales, and development experience. In his role as President, Kent works to identify new opportunities for economic growth, deliver new programming for clean manufacturing, focus on timely and relevant membership experiences, and increase membership value while also advocating for pragmatic trade policies and inclusive practices.
Kent hopes to inspire industry leaders and stakeholders to work together toward a more sustainable and equitable future for everyone included in the outdoor industry. He resides on the Front Range in Colorado, and when time permits, he is outdoors. Currently, his personal mission is to find other people from the outdoor industry of all abilities to join him in hiking all the segments of the entire Colorado Trail as slow as possible.