Claude Gagnon: The All-Terrain Engineer

"A weekend of high adrenaline with friends? Not exactly. For Gagnon and the others, the fun was important, but that trip was work as well. The group was out in the woods of southeastern Canada to push some machines to the limit and evaluate their performance, from the ergonomics of their seats to their maneuverability across various terrains.

Tests like this have become routine for Gagnon, a design project manager at Bombardier Recreational Products Inc.- BRP, as it's known - which last year had revenues of more than US $2 billion selling snowmobiles, watercraft, ATVs, and engines for karts, motorcycles, and airplanes. At the company's headquarters in Valcourt, Que., Canada, Gagnon leads a team of engineers and technicians whose job is to make sure BRP has some of the coolest recreational machines in the world. "