Polaris has created a new senior management role, that of a Chief Digital Officer, with the role being filled by new hire Victor M. (Vic) Koelsch, who joins Polaris from Exide Technologies, where he was CEO, leading "a challenging turnaround of the company."
Reporting directly to Polaris CEO Scott Wine and CFO Mike Speetzen, he "possesses 30 years of digital and technology experience, with extensive background in digital strategy, technology development and connected product and service offerings, as well as general management.
A seasoned executive, with technology and customers' digital expectations evolving faster than ever, Koelsch will "own the digital strategy for the company. He will be responsible for accelerating Polaris' development and integration of digital technologies into its products, services and experiences, as well as leading the creation of new business solutions and digital offerings," said Wine.
"We have been building industry-leading digital capabilities for several years and are excited for Vic to take our digital efforts to the next level and deliver more value to customers and shareholders. He has made a career of developing and implementing market-leading technology solutions, and we are excited for him to leverage that acumen to augment our existing initiatives and spearhead Polaris' digital future."
For his part Koelsch is quoted as saying: "I look forward to joining Polaris and leveraging my background in bringing innovative, digitally enabled business models and solutions to market that will drive significant transformation and impact across our business and deliver breakthrough value and new experiences for our customers."
Prior to his role at Exide, Koelsch held multiple roles with the Michelin Group, including leading two of Michelin's largest business units "where he successfully deployed numerous new digitally enabled service offerings and business models. In addition, Koelsch served as Michelin's first Chief Digital Officer where he led the company's digital strategy including development of digital services and assets and directly managing the company's standalone digital businesses." Koelsch has an MBA from the University of Houston and a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Oklahoma.