Directors

Marc Glades, President

Marc Glades is a life long resident of Kansas. He was raised in Garden City where he learned the finer points of wingshooting while hunting pheasant with his father. Marc moved to the Eastern part of the state where he attended Emporia State University. It was during these years of the early 90’s when he became addicted to the whitetail deer and bobwhite quail hunting opportunities of southeast Kansas. He also met his wife, Tara during these years and they along with their daughter, Raini and son, Brayden still call southeast Kansas home, living in Burlington.

Marc left college with a teaching degree and it was during his first year of teaching, 1994, that he began looking for opportunities to fuel his passion for the outdoors. He found a company in Minnesota that offered franchises to people interested in selling hunting and fishing trips. The company was Outdoor Connection. Within a few months he was spending his evenings, weekends and summers talking to people about the destinations he could send them.

Five years later, his passion had only grown stronger and he purchased Outdoor Connection and took over full operation in January of 1999. With his teaching career now behind, his plate was full of opportunity. He hired Tracey Chaloupka (Splechter) to help with the organizational work and the office duties. The two of them identified the top goals and within a year’s time had developed the first Outdoor Connection website, catalog and monthly newsletter and they have never looked back.

Today, Marc serves as the President of Outdoor Connection where he oversees the day to day operations and monitors the company on many levels. His family is involved in many aspects of the company and travel with him as much as possible.

Tracey Splechter, Vice President of Operations 

Tracey Splechter joined Outdoor Connection in November of 1999 when it was located in Yates Center, Kansas. Tracey’s duties have varied greatly over the years, ranging from administrative assistant to office manager, to part owner in the company in July 2006. Over the years, Tracey has played a vital role in Outdoor Connection’s growth. Outdoor Connection has given her the opportunity to travel all over the United States and meet many great people.

Tracey enjoys fishing, sporting clays and has recently began pursuing big game animals.  Her passion is to get more women involved in the great outdoors.  Tracey has two daughters, Alyssa and Alexa, who along with her husband, Adam, reside in southeast Kansas.

Scott Marvin, Vice President

Scott Marvin calls Warroad, MN his home. Warroad is located only 8 miles from the Canadian border and is the only American port on Lake of the Woods. Born and raised in Warroad, Marvin was introduced to fishing on Lake of the Woods at a young age as well as hockey and hunting. Marvin attended University of North Dakota on a hockey scholarship and played hockey for the UND Fighting Sioux. UND is where he met his future wife, Lynda. Married for 30 years, Scott and Lynda have three beautiful daughters who are also passionate about the outdoors and love hunting as a family. The Marvin family has been fortunate enough to have experienced family hunting trips in Quebec, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Africa as well as various parts of the United States.

Scott’s business background included time as a third generation family business member for 11 years. Following his exit from the family business, Scott ventured into the Canadian fishing and hunting camp industry. Establishing an island resort on Lake of the Woods and then adding another fly in resort business to his menu, Scott operated both of these hunting and fishing businesses for 13 years. Subsequent to his exit from the resort industry, Scott built a new detail shop and car wash in Warroad where he operated that business for four years until its sale. Marvin’s move into Outdoor Connection followed as he bought his franchise in 2007. Since that time Scott has joined the Outdoor Connection management team as Vice President.

Darcy Tkach, Vice President of Canada Operations

Darcy was born and Raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His love for the outdoors was instilled at a very young age travelling the province fishing with his Dad. His enthusiasm for the outdoors only grew once he was old enough to start hunting, which took him all over Manitoba and Canada for that matter. The rest as they say is history! Darcy was fishing guide for two years at a 5 Star Fishing Lodge in north western Ontario and also managed a camp in Manitoba for a season, so he understands the clients needs very well. He will go to great lengths to make sure the client is happy first and foremost.

His business background is 100% sales starting out as a retail sales clerk for a local Fishing and outdoors store in Winnipeg when he was 16. From there he went on to a company where he was the Regional Sales Manager for a Canadian Wide chain. He was also a General Manager of an entire Sales Call Center in Winnipeg. He has lead sales teams that were as small as four people to as many as 300 sales people at one time. He also brings with him first hand knowledge of running his own company.

He believes you are only as strong as your weakest link and strives to have the best sales people within the organization that believe in the company 110%.

Joining Outdoor Connection has been 12 years in the making and he is excited to lead Canada and help see the company and clients continue to grow for years to come.