Q&A: Gert Boyle, the 'First Lady of Oregon,' on Making Ads and Being the Center of Attention

Columbia Sportswear's chairman returns, though she never really left

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Gert Boyle, 91, chairman of Columbia Sportswear, returns this week in the company's ads after a decade's absence. From 1984 to 2005, she perfected the "One Tough Mother" persona in a series of comical commercials, appearing with her son, Timothy, Columbia's CEO.

Affectionately known as "The First Lady of Oregon" and a business legend in the Pacific Northwest, Boyle's overcome plenty of adversity on her way to the top. She arrived in the U.S. when she was 13, after her family had fled Nazi Germany.

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