US environmentalist and businessman Douglas Tompkins, the founder of outdoor clothing and equipment company The North Face, died on Tuesday during a kayaking trip in Chile, local health officials said. He was 72.
Tompkins was on General Carrera Lake in Patagonia in southern Chile with a group of five others when his kayak flipped and he fell into the icy waters, the Aysen regional health service said in a statement.
Local media reported that he was knocked over by a strong wave. All five of his companions were unharmed.
The service said he was admitted about 1:30pm to the regional hospital in Coyhaique, about 1,832km south of Santiago, but was pronounced dead of severe hypothermia hours later.
Tompkins founded The North Face, now part of VF Corp, in the 1960s as a small ski and backpacking retailer in San Francisco. The company markets clothing and gear to hikers, mountain climbers and other outdoor enthusiasts.
Tompkins also cofounded clothing company Esprit, which started with he and his then-wife selling clothes out of the back of their car before becoming an internationally recognized brand, according to his conservation Web site.
Tompkins later grew into an active environmentalist. He began acquiring vast tracts of land in the Patagonia region of Chile and Argentina in the 1990s, which he converted into protected nature parks.
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
READY TO BUY: Shortly after Nvidia announced the approval, Chinese firms scrambled to order the H20 GPUs, which the company must send to the US government for approval Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) late on Monday said the technology giant has won approval from US President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run China Global Television Network in remarks shown on X. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us
The National Stabilization Fund (NSF, 國安基金) is to continue supporting local shares, as uncertainties in international politics and the economy could affect Taiwanese industries’ global deployment and corporate profits, as well as affect stock movement and investor confidence, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement yesterday. The NT$500 billion (US$17.1 billion) fund would remain active in the stock market as the US’ tariff measures have not yet been fully finalized, which would drive international capital flows and global supply chain restructuring, the ministry said after the a meeting of the fund’s steering committee. Along with ongoing geopolitical risks and an unfavorable
MATCHING NEIGHBORS: Taiwan lacks leverage with the US and ‘we should not be optimistic until details are confirmed,’ the Third Wednesday Club’s Lin Por-fong said Taiwan must secure tariff terms from the US that are on par with those granted to key export rivals such as Japan and South Korea or risk ceding competitiveness in global markets, a leading industrialist said yesterday, as concerns mount over trade barriers and currency volatility. Lin Por-fong (林伯豐), chairman of Taiwan Glass Industry Corp (台灣玻璃) and head of the Third Wednesday Club (三三會) — an exclusive body for Taiwan’s top 100 business leaders — said that Taiwan cannot afford to be optimistic ahead of Washington’s release of “reciprocal” tariff rates. “Taiwan lacks bargaining leverage with the US and we should not
RSS