Let me start by saying how sorry I am for calling Tom Tiller and Mark Blackwell out in this forum. It was uncalled for and undeserved.

Tom was a rising star at GE and, at the age of 43, left there to take over a company that needed some help. He was smart enough to recognize that Polaris had a lot of positive attributes and the revenue per employee was twice that of it's competitors. It had great products, very little debt, but just seemed to be running a little flat. He came in with a sense of direction and focus and over the span of seven years (1997-2004) the stock value in the company rose 400%. He has an MBA from Harvard and more business sense in his pinky finger than I will ever have. In 2003 he was named Powersports Business "Executive of the Year". The fact that he left GE (and all of the associated international travel it entailed) to settle in with a company based out of Medina, Minnesota tells me that he is probably a hell of a family guy too.

Mark is best known for his racing background. He is the essence of the term "motorcyclist". As a kid, he was a flat track, TT and scramble racer. Because of Mark's racing passion as a kid, his dad decided to learn how to race at the age of 40. Mark credits this common bond (motorcycles) with his dad as the outlet that kept him from getting into trouble as a kid. A Motorcycle Hall of Famer, he was the first winner of the AMA 500cc Motocross Championship (1971) among many others. During the mid 70's, his racing days wound down and he began to ramp up his business background. While teaching a Suzuki riding school and consulting for numerous race-related companies by day, he went to night school to earn his MBA. He left Suzuki, went to work for Husqvarna, back to Suzuki. Arctic Cat approached him in 1992 and asked him to help them launch a line of ATV's. (Up until then, they had been a snowmobile company.) From 1992 to 2000, Arctic Cat grew from $150 million/annual sales to $500 million. He came on board with Victory in 2000 and in 2005 was named Vice President of Victory Motorcycles and International Sales.

Every company these guys have worked for got better. Not just a little better, significantly better. Under Tom's leadership, the R & D center in Wyoming, MN came into existence. This state of the art facility was created with one goal in mind; Attract the best and brightest engineers and designers available to Polaris/Victory. The job applicant to position available ratio was about 100-1. This facility, along with the laid back, wide open, family oriented lifestyle of Minnesota attracted guys like Mike Song, Greg Brew and all of the other long ball hitters that create our dream machines.

Without the leadership and forward thinking of guys like Tom Tiller and Mark Blackwell, projects like the Vision would never get made, the envelope would never get pushed, and America would continue it's slide into world class mediocrity.

I'm not worthy to tie these guys shoes.

Sincerely,

Tom Warren