BRA Staff

Doug Works

Doug serves as the current Executive Director of the Board Retailers Association.

As Executive Director, Doug is your single point of contact and is an outstanding resource for Retailers as well as Brands, Vendors, and Community Partners. 

Doug is a lifelong skateboarder who possesses the perfect mix of experience (vendor, retailer, and brand manager) to succeed in this very important role. Doug grew up skateboarding in Tampa then moved to Orlando where he skateboarded, wakeboarded, and received a degree in Marketing from the University of Central Florida. In December of 1997 / January 1998, he drove cross-country to Southern California where he continued skateboarding, picked up snowboarding, and graduated from The University of San Diego with an MBA.  He then landed a highly coveted job as a commercial real estate adviser at CBRE, the largest and smartest commercial real estate firm on the planet. Over the next 14 years, Doug provided commercial real estate solutions in the form of marketing and financial advising for institutional property owners and occupiers. He went on to create an action sports-specific niche within his real estate consulting practice at CBRE after authoring a helpful, relevant, and very well-received article entitled “How to Negotiate a Lease Like a Pro” in the January 2005 issue of Transworld Business. At that point, he dove headfirst into establishing solid industry relationships and providing resources for Action Sports-related companies including numerous board specialty retailers around the country as well as Dragon, Osiris, Transworld, IASC, and many more. Since marketing funds were abundant at that time, he attended all the trade shows and became a Supporting Vendor Partner of BRA, IASC, and SIA. Doug even founded a networking group called ASPN (Action Sports Provider Network) consisting of high-caliber professional service providers who met once per month to share best practices, strengthen existing relationships, identify continuing education opportunities, and connect members to new clients via personal referrals within the group. Shortly after the great recession decimated the commercial real estate industry, Doug decided to shift his career path via investment in an exciting new venture called Aura Skateboarding Company in Vista, CA. As GM and Director of Vendor & Sponsor Relations at Aura, he was responsible for managing and marketing every aspect of the indoor skateboard training facility operation including: instructional programming, social media, events, team, facility sponsorships, and most importantly, retail. After nearly 5 years at Aura, Doug moved on to work for Surplus Distribution of Australia where he generated significant sales in every region domestically and ultimately managed the entire USA operation for Mystery Skateboards, Theeve Trucks, and a variety of other internal and external hardgoods brands. Doug has a heart for others and has been involved with five non-profits including Project Mercy, The Tony Hawk Foundation (now The Skatepark Project), Umbrella Skateboarding, Exposure Skate, and most recently, Rollin’ From the Heart. Doug lives in North San Diego County with his wife, Danielle, and daughter, Winona Joy. He enjoys skateboarding, reading, and adventures with Danielle and Winnie. He also mentors and provides skateboarding instruction at several after-school skateboarding programs for at-risk youth every week and teaches private skateboarding lessons to children and adults at local skateparks regularly.

His responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

• Creating and executing programs to help board specialty, outdoor specialty, and lifestyle specialty retailers to survive and thrive
• Identifying and introducing ideas, resources, and vendors to Retail Members to enable them to lower expenses, increase profits, and create more remarkable customer experiences
• Increasing and maintaining an active Retail Membership base
• Curating helpful and relevant specialty retailer-centric articles for the News and Resourceful Articles section of the BRA site
• Compiling content for newsletters with informational content and exclusive Member deals from Vendor Partners and Brand Partners valuable to board specialty retailers
• Representing BRA at trade shows and periodic industry functions
• Updating BRA social media pages and website
• Promoting BRA to potential Brand Partners, Vendor Partners, and Community Partners

Feel free to connect directly with Doug via 760-500-5716 or [email protected]