Who We Are

One of the luxuries of being a small company is that it's easy for us to let y’all into who we are and what our identity as a company is. One of the strange things about being a small company is that just a few staff changes can result in a noticeable shift in your company identity. If you’ve noticed some changes in your interactions with us in the last few months, that’s because there’s a few new faces around! We wanted to take a moment to talk about the staff that makes up Cnoc Outdoors right now, what each of their roles are, and share a few fun facts about their dirtbag cred.

Gilad is Cnoc’s founder and general manager - if there’s a name you associate with Cnoc, it’s most likely Gilad’s. Gilad’s day to day job description is far too expansive to cover in a quick blurb - he basically does everything that isn’t done by the rest of us, which is quite a bit. He also jumps in and covers for all of us so we can get our own outdoor adventures in and is everyone’s primary teacher as they try to grow in their job. Gilad was born in Israel and he caught the backpacking bug while traveling around New Zealand and Australia, which led to the beginning of his career in the outdoor industry, as well as a 7 month backpacking trip in the Andes. He worked a few roles in outdoor retail in the UK before starting Cnoc and moving to the US in 2016. While likely the busiest member of the Cnoc team, Gilad still squeezes adventures in whenever possible, not just growing his own skills, but introducing his children to the world of outdoor adventuring as well. 

Mika is Cnoc’s co-founder and officially unofficial Cnoc employee! While not hugely involved with the day to day operations at our warehouse, as Gilad’s wife, she was heavily involved in the birth of Cnoc and continues to be involved in Cnoc in both HR and strategy sense. She’s also an important sounding board as someone without the extensive outdoor world immersion the rest of the team has - she helps us with our blind spots. While Mika will downplay her own outdoor resume, she’s backpacked, bikepacked, and traversed long distances all sorts of ways, often with a few kids in tow. 

Adrian is Cnoc’s lead fabrication manager (informally, he calls himself the pole wizard). He makes every trekking pole, tent pole, and stake that comes out of our warehouse while simultaneously looking for ways to make them better. His photography skills, while possibly learned so he could be behind the camera instead of in front, are relied upon constantly. He wears a lot of hats. Adrian went to an environmental middle school here in Portland that resulted in a lifelong love of the outdoors, and he knows the trails around our neck of the woods in Northwest Oregon better than anyone - it’s not easy to find one he hasn’t backpacked.

Kyle is Cnoc’s logistics and social impact manager. He manages our Portland warehouse - when you open your box of much anticipated gear, it was likely Kyle who lovingly packed it for you. He also heads our social impact initiatives, like our staff trail work, outreach programs, and our B Corp status. Kyle is also sometimes known as Radish, like during his thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, during which he became enamored with the Pacific Northwest. He, his partner, and his cats moved to Portland two weeks after he reached the Canadian border. These days he fits an impressive amount of adventure into his life - about a month into his tenure at Cnoc, he and his partner thru-hiked the Wind River High Route. You can see beautifully shot footage of all his travels on his Youtube channel.

Becky is Cnoc’s new marketing and customer experience manager. She runs the social accounts, sends out newsletters, keeps the Cnoc blog running - she wrote this! She also handles all things relating to your experience communicating with Cnoc, like customer inquiries and warranties. Becky worked in education previously, but caught the backpacking bug on a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2017 that led to a thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail in 2019 - she likely isn’t triple crowning any time soon, but thanks for asking. Her background is in outdoor writing, so feel free to read up on the extensive internet record of all her hikes. These days she spends a lot of time trying to coax her leashed cat onto her patio and training to be a better trail runner in hopes of achieving a more efficient mileage to life balance.