Jake Burton is reverentially described as a “crazy dude”. He’s an inveterate adventurer, go-getter, performance athlete – and a highly successful businessman. He’s the man behind the snowboard brand Burton, the entrepreneur who turned snowboarding into a global movement.

On behalf of THE MINI INTERNATIONAL, Jürgen Kalwa visited the “culture guru” – as the newspaper USA Today described him – for an interview at his company HQ in Vermont. What our reporter found was a laid-back CEO, just back from a morning excursion on a test board, who avers that “My inspiration is people’s common sense.” As of this year, MINI is the main sponsor of the Burton Global Open Series, the world’s leading snowboarding event. For Jake Burton this is only logical: “MINI has a reputation for completely redefining the conventional view of the car. They’ve developed a product with unbelievable personality which successfully reflects its target group – young people. Not only is the car fun to drive, it’s also amazingly functional. Those are important qualities in a product – and they’re ones we share as well.”