Founder Leaving Exactrail

[lock4244]

Wondering if this will have any major affect, either way, on their N scale offerings or direction?

http://www.exactrail.com/blog-archives/01242011-2

[Mark5]

They don't say he's leaving ...

Retiring CEO, Clune, will continue to be a source of inspiration and direction for ExactRail’s precision product development team.

Could be he's just stepping out of the CEO shoes.

[SirTainly]

Anyone know if the new guy is a model railroader, or just a biz-dev type?

[ArtinCA]

Sounds like a set up for possible sale maybe? Maybe the Horizon Borg will be busy in a couple of years..

[SebastianLee]

Looks like he was the seed money / co-founder of exactrail from his linked in profile.  I have no idea what his day-to-day role was in the company before the announcement. From an outside business perspective it just looks like he is just taking over more direct control of his investment.  That usually means the company hasn't met the objectives outlined in the venture capital agreement.  :-\

[Sokramiketes]

Interesting to see TrainLife's Tasha Oates as the contact on the press release...

[Mark5]

It was the Conrail can opener that did him in ...

[cv_acr]

From what I hear, this Chris Clune is a master toolmaker; before starting up Exactrail he tooled a lot of models for Athearn and apparently also for Tangent.

He's probably letting one of his business partners take over more of the admin stuff so he can concentrate on what he does best.

[wazzou]

Interesting to see TrainLife's Tasha Oates as the contact on the press release...

More interesting that she has an ExactRail address.

[elogger]

That's because she works for ExactRail. John Pestana also helped start up Trainlife.



Jeremy

[sirenwerks]

As long as this doesn't slow down the 4427s, I don't care who's running the company.

[Bluford Craig]

From what I hear, this Chris Clune is a master toolmaker; before starting up Exactrail he tooled a lot of models for Athearn and apparently also for Tangent.

He's probably letting one of his business partners take over more of the admin stuff so he can concentrate on what he does best.

Yes, Chris is the tooling guy. He is also an active HO scaler. He cut tooling for several manufacturers under the name Cascade Micro-Tooling before launching Exact-Rail.

Craig

[asarge]

Sounds like a set up for possible sale maybe? Maybe the Horizon Borg will be busy in a couple of years..

On the one hand, conspiracy theories and crap like that are usually false and I don;t think Clunes "retiring" as CEO means the business is up for sale. HOWEVER, with all the new entrants in model railroading in the past 5 years or so, consolidation will probably occur at some point in the not too distant future. Model Railroading is a hobby to most of us, but it is still a business to the manufacturer's and change is constant in the business world, the model railroad industry is no different.

[mcjaco]

Yes, Chris is the tooling guy. He is also an active HO scaler. He cut tooling for several manufacturers under the name Cascade Micro-Tooling before launching Exact-Rail.

Craig

Skibbe, is the the guy that was with Tasha at Naperville?  Name sounds familiar.

[Sokramiketes]

Skibbe, is the the guy that was with Tasha at Naperville?  Name sounds familiar.

You're thinking of Chris Brimley.