Industry

New CrossFit CEO Don Faul Tours Brazilian Boxes With Leadership

October 6, 2022 by
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Key CrossFit senior staff members – led by new CEO Don Faul – have been touring Brazilian CrossFit boxes, dropping into affiliates, hosting workouts and meeting with coaches and the community. 

Daniel Chaffey, International Director of CrossFit, described it as a listening tour, “seeing the realities of being a box owner in a country in the midst of an election, with a slumping exchange rate and crazy inflation.” Leadership met with box owners, community leaders and seminar staff across the country in Fortaleza, Rio de Janeiro, Pedro Leopoldo, Sete Lagoas and Aldeota, according to Chaffey and tags on several Instagram posts.

Who’s on the trip:

  • Don Faul, CEO
  • Gary Gaines, general manager of International and Affiliates
  • Daniel Chaffey, International Director of CrossFit
  • Ricardo Prudente, CrossFit’s Country Manager for Brazil
  • Dave Castro, advisor to the CEO

One big thing: Affiliate tours are not a new concept for CrossFit’s top brass. Then CEO Eric Roza led a multi-country European tour last summer to meet with affiliate owners and the community to present his vision for CrossFit moving forward and hear from owners specifically on the unique challenges facing the community in each country. 

The big picture: Brazil has the single largest number of affiliates in South America, and Latin America remains an important market for CrossFit’s plans to expand further globally. 

  • At one point, Brazil also had the second largest concentration of affiliates globally after the United States at around 1,000 locations. 
  • Those numbers have since dropped during the COVID pandemic. 

CrossFit staff will now be heading to the LATAM Affiliate Summit today, a gathering of Latin American Affiliates in Guayaquil, Ecuador Saturday and Sunday.

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