Our personnel have over thirty years of combined and dedicated snowboarding experience.

Howard Merson (Founder)

Howard Merson, co-founder of Knew, started snowboarding in 1998 while living in the San Francisco Bay area. He was a Lake Tahoe weekend warrior, primarily riding Heavenly, Kirkwood, and Squaw. In 2000, Merson moved to the East Coast, and Stowe became his mountain of choice, primarily on weekends and holidays. In 2005, the Mersons permanently moved to Stowe and Howard now logs 100+ days each season.

He has three kids, all active snowboarding. His oldest and middle children are training under former Olympic Halfpipe Coach Bud Keene at Crested Butte Academy, and his youngest is rapidly rising on the national competition scene, training under the Mount Mansfield Snowboard Club coaching of Mike Slaughter and "Danger" Dave Boldwin.

Merson’s business background and experience includes operations, business development, strategic planning, and financial management.

Howard is also a partner with his father at Merson Group, LLC, a private equity firm specializing in investment financing, including the funding for Knew Mgmt., LLC. Previously, he was with the Investment Banking Group of Impala Partners, LLC, where he was responsible for M&A activity. Prior to joining Impala Partners, he was with Rexel, Inc. for a period spanning over fourteen years. As Vice President of Corporate Business Development, he led Rexel’s West Coast development. In between assignments at Rexel, he was with GE Capital Services at their headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut where his responsibilities included leading GECS’s Strategic Sourcing initiatives.

He was awarded a Sloan Fellowship and received an MS in Management from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and earned a BS from the University of Alabama.

Luke Bonang (Marketing/Rider Relations/Event Development)

Luke is a Vermont native who graduated from the University of Vermont in 2003. His passion for snowboarding has led him to both Colorado and Mammoth, California, where he spent five years snowboarding and “living the dream”. Luke began his industry career at Rossignol Snowboards, where he was involved with marketing, and continued to ride on the regional level in California. Luke’s ongoing relationship with Rossignol gave him the opportunity to be involved in various aspects of the company. In 2003, he traveled to Les 2 Alpes, France, where he coached up-and-coming groms from around the world. He also played an integral role at Rossignol promotional events, including team focus groups, on-snows, event promotions, and product evaluations. This past spring, Luke exercised some of his former coaching experience as he assisted Ross Powers at his annual camp at Stratton.

Luke has an undying passion for the shred and has traveled both nationally and abroad (Europe and South America) to get as close as possible to year-round snowboarding. Outside of his strong work ethic and unique personality, his background has brought an invaluable amount of experience and knowledge surrounding snowboarding, the industry, and action sports to Knew Mgmt.

In his spare time, you will find Luke enjoying the outdoors, sports-related activities, fishing, music, traveling, cooking, and his family and friends.

Mike Toohey (Marketing/Growth Coordinator/Event Development)

Mike, otherwise known as "Toohey" was raised in Vermont, where he was home-schooled with his two brothers and two sisters. When he turned eighteen, his passion for snowboarding led him to Stowe Mountain Resort, where he instructed for several seasons. At the age of twenty, Toohey packed his bags and drove out West to experience big-mountain snowboarding. He lived, traveled, and competed at legendary mountains such as Crested Butte, Crystal Mountain, Breckenridge, and Mt. Baker. When he returned to Vermont, he began his industry career working as a retail associate in the Burton Flagship Store in Burlington, before joining forces with Darkside Snowboards in Stowe as their assistant manager.

Toohey eats, sleeps, and breathes snowboarding. His positive attitude, coupled with his influential personality, has made him an integral aspect of the snowboarding community. Toohey’s focus on the next generation of snowboarders and his unique views on the sport make Toohey an incredibly valuable and inventive asset to Knew Mgmt.

When he’s not shredding, you can find Mike skateboarding, enjoying live music, riding his motorcycle, cliff-jumping, writing, and hanging out with good friends.


Photography/Video
Knew Mgmt has located several photographers and videographers throughout the country that will be shooting our athletes at various events, photo shoots, and lifestyle ops.