Gert Boyle

Gertrude Boyle was a German-born American businesswoman in the U.S. state of Oregon. After her family fled Nazi Germany, her father founded the business that would become Columbia Sportswear, where in 1970, she became company president. She remained president until 1988 and additionally, served as chairwoman of the company's board of directors from 1983 until her death in 2019. Starting in the 1980s, she appeared in a series of advertisements for Columbia Sportswear alongside her son Timothy Boyle, often humorously testing the quality and durability of their products. She was also a philanthropist and memoirist.