Ben Popp - From Sisu to Birkie

Announcement

On Wednesday, May 8th, 2013, the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation, in tandem with the Sisu Foundation, announced that Ben Popp had accepted the position as the new executive director for the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation.

For those that live well outside the Twin Cities metro area, and are unaware of his accomplishments, this move may have come as a surprise.

Background

Ben Popp has been involved in Nordic skiing nearly his entire life. He started skiing at the age of three, skied in his first Birkie event (the Korte) at age 13, and last February completed his 15th Birkie. In fact, Popp has had a very competitive career skiing. Popp, along with Per Nelson, partnered to form the Skinnyski.com Race Team. He has worked in the cycling industry and formed his own personal training firm (Endurance Athlete). He has also competed multiple times in the ultra-cycling event, the Race Across America. Popp has already indicated he plans to continue racing the Birkie (we’ll see if he can maintain his impressive string of top 50 finishes!)

Popp’s most recent project has been the Sisu Foundation. The Sisu Foundation was founded in 2008, initially as a ski training program, but has grown to be a much larger non-profit silent sport advocacy group. Popp and the foundation have developed and run numerous events and races over his tenure.

Shock Wave

For those that are familiar with Popp and the Sisu Foundation, the leaving of Popp, combined with the recent departure of coach Jason Kask, has sent some shock waves through the community.

However, the truth is Popp will be leaving the Sisu Foundation with as an organization well established and moving forward. The foundation is lead by a very strong board, which recently expanded from four to eight members as they’ve brought on Chris Coleman, Mayor of St. Paul, Jeff Blodgett, known for his leadership in prominent political campaigns including Wellstone and Obama, and Laurel Stephenson, guru in marketing and communications. This strong board has fueled much of the growth and has a deep and committed vision for the foundation.

While Popp has been one of the more visible members of the organization, the group prides itself on the strength of its programs and staff. Many athletes might know Sisu only for their ski training programs, but the organization has become so much more. In addition to the very extensive offering of ski training programs for masters and juniors, including local innovations like the D-team, the foundation is committed to a number of other projects and missions:

Events - Sisu has a wide range of races under their umbrella, including citizen ski races and Junior National Qualifiers, trail running races, and coming this fall, a new urban point-to-point race, the St. Paul Urban Trail Marathon. The new marathon will weave through Battle Creek, Indian Mounds Park, and come down along the Mississippi eventually finishing in Rice Park in downtown St. Paul.

Corporate Wellness/Community Outreach - Sisu has developed fitness programs and implemented them in unison with a number of local corporations, as well as community programs.

Siirra Center - One of Sisu’s biggest projects is the development of snowmaking and eventually an outdoor recreation gateway building. No pie-in-the-sky dream, the project has been steadily moving forward with the support of county officials, as well as some new partners and supporters. Watch for some exciting news in the months ahead.

Besides those major portions, Sisu has grown with the establishment of new office and workout space on University Ave near Hwy 280. And veteran coach and Olympian Kevin Brochman just recently resigned his position at Roseville, as well as his previous summer employment, to work full-time for Sisu.

All of this development, while in large part ushered by Popp, was done with the Sisu Foundation. This means agreements, negotiations, etc, are not dependent on any one person, but with the organization as a whole.

Change leadership isn’t exactly new to Sisu either. The organization has handled it with very little fanfare in the past. Of the original four members that started Sisu back in 2008, Popp is actually the sole remaining member. And Popp will continue on as one of the board members.

Taking over as acting executive director for Sisu, Mike Brown has been involved with the organization for many years now, serving on the board as treasurer and working very closely with Popp. And speaking volumes for the reputation Sisu has grown, Brown reports they have already been receiving unsolicited applications from a number of very prominent athletes and executives to fill the recent departures. They expect to be fully staffed by the time the summer training programs get underway.

Birkie Bound

Popp is excited to be returning to his northern Wisconsin roots and working with the most prestigious Nordic ski race in North America. Even before applying for the Birkie position, Popp and his family had begun work on a cabin near Hayward. With the surprise announcement of the departure of Ned Zuelsdorff, Popp accelerated their plans to move north and rejoin the northwoods community.

Zuelsdorff is leaving the Birkie Foundation extremely well positioned, having helped to grow not only the Birkie race but implement a number of new events. Popp doesn’t expect any big changes as he assumes responsibilities. The core Birkie team remains and Popp may feel a little pressure to continue those high standards.

While the Birkie is stronger than ever, there remain some challenges that will have Popp hitting the ground running this summer. The issue of the start area and Telemark Resort remains unresolved (though there are a number of options) and developing sponsorship is a constant and prominent job for any director. More unique to Popp, he’ll bring some of his network but will busy building new connections and opportunities in a community much smaller than the 3.3 million of the Twin Cities.

Birkie skiers can expect to experience the same high quality event, relatively unchanged from previous years. However, Popp is already looking into opportunities to further enhance and develop the infrastructure. One of the things he’d like to eventually see is even more live coverage from the big race, including live online tracking and expanded live video coverage at the finish. And being the father of two young boys (who’ve already participated in the Barnebirkie), Popp is excited about the potential for further youth development programming.

While Popp admits leaving the Sisu Foundation is a bit like having your child move out, he is excited to see what the future holds … for both organizations!