17 minute read
MANUFACTURING & TECH
Mark Anderson
PRESIDENT AND CEO ProMach
Anderson has led the Covington-based packaging materials and machinery manufacturer since 2005 and continues the company’s expansion by acquisition. In 2020, ProMach added Florida-based Pharmaworks, Modern Packaging of New York, Michigan-based Fogg Filler, Panther Industries of Colorado, and California-based Statco-DSI Process Systems. In February, it acquired Serpa Packaging Solutions. It posted revenue of more than $950 million in 2020.
Scott Anderson
PRESIDENT HBH Holdings
Anderson, who was CEO of HBH subsidiary Enerfab, was named President of the parent company in 2020. HBH focuses on fabrication, maintenance, and construction for the heavy industrial and utility markets. Enerfab CEO Aaron Landholt, who succeeded Anderson, led the local affiliate to $340 million in revenue in 2020.
Hometown: North Benton, Ohio Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? The need to move quickly in an unchartered environment to keep the business moving forward. I recognized that short-term decisions would have longterm consequences, so our team needed to balance the needs of today with the long-term survival and stability of the company. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? I’ve learned to be a lot more open-minded about how we get the work done.
Dean Backscheider
PRESIDENT BGR
Backscheider and his brother, Allen, manage the packaging supply chain company founded by their father, Al, in 1972 with “12 cases of tape and an understanding that packaging and shipping companies needed a partner.” Today, it occupies more than 300,000 square feet in West Chester, with other facilities in Louisville, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Huntington, West Virginia.
Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate), Xavier University (MBA)
Pete Blackshaw
CEO Cintrifuse
Blackshaw leads the organization created in 2012 by the Cincinnati Business Committee and supported by Kroger, Procter & Gamble, Western & Southern, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to access cutting-edge technologies by leveraging its venture fund. It connects the local corporate sector with innovators who help keep large companies nimble.
Hometown: Pasadena, California Education: University of California Santa Cruz (undergraduate), Harvard University (MBA) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? COVID magnified extreme tensions. We’re connected and more divided, greener and more toxic, more innovative and more invasive, and more productive and more displaced. These dilemmas create massive potential for renewal and revitalization if we embrace them as healthy tensions, not intractable problems.
Doug Cahill
PRESIDENT AND CEO Hillman Group
Cahill led Hillman’s merger with Houston-based Lancadia Holdings III in June, then took the combined company public in July when it joined the Nasdaq exchange. It is a hardware supplier to top market retailers that include Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Walmart, reporting 2020 revenue of $1.4 billion before the IPO. Max Hillman founded the original fastener company in 1964 to supply hardware stores.
Hometown: St. Henry, Ohio Education: Bowling Green State University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Keeping our people safe while we take great care of our customers. We were deemed essential, so we never shut down, and our retail service team made 98,000 store visits during the second quarter of 2020. They’re absolute warriors, and we’re blessed to have them.
Adam Browning
PRESIDENT Gold Medal Products
Browning was named President in 2017 to lead the family-owned manufacturer and distributor of concession food equipment and supplies founded by Dave Evans in 1931. The third generation of the Evans family is in management, working alongside the fourth generation. Sales have almost doubled in the past decade as it employs more than 350 people in 16 locations, posting more than $170 million in revenue in 2020.
Hometown: Dayton Education: Centre College (undergraduate), University of Cincinnati (MBA), Northern Kentucky University (J.D.) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? We’ve rebounded quickly over the past six months, but it’s presented a new set of challenges, so we’re cautiously optimistic. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? It’s elevated the necessity for contingency planning, prioritization, and analyzing things in even greater detail.
James Clark
PRESIDENT AND CEO LSI Industries
Clark joined the Blue Ash-based industry leader in lighting and graphic solutions for commercial and industrial buildings, petroleum and convenience stores, and retailers in 2018. It bought Maine-based JSI Store Fixtures in May for $90 million. It employs more than 1,400 people in facilities in seven states and posted revenue of more than $305 million in 2020.
Education: State University of New York at Albany (undergraduate)
Otto Budig Jr.
CHAIRMAN Budco Group
Budig runs the transportation, logistics, equipment leasing, and venture capital firm his father started as a trucking company in 1949. The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation is one of the largest supporters of the arts in the region. His name is on Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s theater and Cincinnati Ballet’s academy. He is leading the capital campaign for The Carnegie, the historic Covington arts venue, and the fundraising to build a new Clifton Cultural Arts Center.
Mike Clark
PRESIDENT AND COO Pilot Chemical
Clark became the top executive at the maker of disulfonates for the manufacturing and personal care industries when CEO Pamela Butcher stepped down at the beginning of the year. Pilot was a financial beneficiary of the pandemic as its biocide products that kill viruses increased sales five-fold. It posted 2020 revenue of $311 million. Clark, who joined the company in 2018, oversees more than 400 employees at nine locations.
Hometown: Hamilton Education: Miami University (undergraduate) How are your employees feeling as they and your business emerge from the pandemic? The team quickly responded to navigate the many curveballs it threw at us, and now we’re doubling down on these investments to further unlock growth and innovation.
Cris Collinsworth
CEO Pro Football Focus
The former Bengals wide receiver and current NBC Sunday Night Football commentator saw the value in analytics early. He bought a majority interest in the company founded by Englishman Neil Hornsby, who relocated to Cincinnati in 2014. They doubled the space in their Over-the-Rhine offices, installed top notch recording and video production capabilities, and hired more staff. PFF plans to add soccer and rugby to its grade-and-analyze services.
Hometown: Titusville, Florida Education: University of Florida (undergraduate), University of Cincinnati (J.D.)
Richard Corrado
PRESIDENT AND CEO Air Transport Services Group
Corrado replaced Joe Hete, who led the Wilmington-based company since 2003 before retiring last year. ATSG provides leased air cargo transportation for customers such as DHL, Amazon, and the U.S. military, posting revenue of almost $1.6 billion in 2020. It announced plans to partner with Florida-based GA Telesis to open a Specialized Procedures Aeroengine Hospital, a repair, inspection, and maintenance facility for aircraft engines.
Steve Cuntz
PRESIDENT AND CEO BlueStar
Cuntz joined the Hebron-based global provider of solutions-based electronics such as bar-code scanners and inventory tracking devices to resellers as controller in 1985, then became CEO in 2008. Its 2009 revenue was $365 million; since then Cuntz has helped BlueStar grow into the region’s second-largest private company with almost $1.8 billion in revenue in 2019.
Todd Dickson
CEO Champion Windows
Dickson has led the home improvement company since 2014. Champion was founded in 1953 as a manufacturer of aluminum screen doors, windows, awnings, and screen rooms, and today it’s located on a state-ofart headquarters and manufacturing campus in Sharonville. The company posted revenue of more than $280 million in 2020 and employs more than 1,100 people with 50 U.S. showrooms.
Chris Froman
CHAIRMAN Pomeroy
Froman led the firm from 2009 until it was sold to Getronics of the Netherlands in 2018, then returned to lead the Hebron-based provider of IT infrastructure, staffing, procurement, and logistics services in 2019. In September, the company named Chief Information Officer Bob Watts as CEO and Chief Revenue Officer John Blackburn as President, while Froman took on the role of Chairman.
David Gelwicks
PRESIDENT Hickman, Williams & Co.
Gelwicks leads the employee-owned company that has supplied raw materials (from carbon and steel production products to metals and alloys) to the foundry industry since 1890. The firm has five regional offices in North America, with its corporate headquarters in downtown Cincinnati. It posted revenue of almost $140 million in 2020.
Michael Gilbert
CEO Aristech Surfaces
Gilbert leads the Florence-based company that’s manufactured acrylic sheet and surface products for architects, designers, and fabricators in the construction industry since it was founded in 1970. Aristech has a second manufacturing plant in Belen, New Mexico, and an international office in London. It posted revenue of almost $70 million in 2020.
Education: Grove City College (undergraduate)
Paul Gohr
Gohr is the ranking company executive in the local office in Madisonville, which shares headquarter functions with the Dallas office. As Chief Accounting Officer, he oversees all aspects of the company’s global accounting function and compliance. CECO provides environmental technology expertise to improve air quality and engineer solutions for industrial partners in oil and gas, power generation, water and wastewater, and chemical processing.
Gary Heiman
PRESIDENT AND CEO Standard Textile
Heiman is the third-generation leader of the business his grandfather started as a linen distributor in 1940. It partnered with the Cleveland Clinic to produce a nonmedical, reusable face mask for use during the pandemic, and Standard donated the majority of profits from the product to COVID research. It operates more than 20 manufacturing and distribution centers in 11 countries and posted revenue of more than $805 million in 2020.
Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Washington University (undergraduate), Georgia Institute of Technology (master’s)
Stephen Hightower
PRESIDENT AND CEO Hightowers Petroleum
Hightower founded the Middletown-based wholesale fuel distribution business that’s the largest minority-owned business in Greater Cincinnati in 1982. It supplies gas for new General Motors, Honda, and Nissan cars and counts Kroger, FedEx, and Waste Management among its fleet customers. It also has operations in South Africa and Nigeria and posted almost $500 million in revenue in 2020.
Hometown: Middletown What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? How to be resilient as we continue to serve the business community. Our entrepreneurial spirit and strong values helped us prevail. I believe it’s not time to retreat, but time to be creative. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? Surviving tough times makes you better. You spend less, you work more, and you get through it.
Jim Jurgensen II
CEO Jurgensen Companies
Jurgensen is the third-generation leader of the family firm founded by his grandfather John as a small construction contractor in 1934. It’s grown to more than 25 companies that provide services from asphalt paving to tank, barge, and rail transloading. It is part of the ownership group of Freedom Pointe, the $150 million mixed-use development that includes retail and more than 400 apartments north of Cincinnati.
Hometown: Cincinnati Education: Lafayette College (undergraduate), Washington University (MBA) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? To recognize the impact to the families, especially those with children, of our team members. The business will be OK. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? We’ve been more accepting of remote meetings in our office and our industry.
Jack Kenny
CEO Meridian Bioscience
Kenny leads the company that manufactures and distributes diagnostic test kits and biopharmaceutical technologies to hospitals, research facilities, and doctors. Its stock rose almost 80 percent during a stretch of 2020 on the strength of its Covid-related testing products. It continued a string of acquisitions with a $20 million stake in Otsuka America Pharmaceutical’s BreathTek this year. Meridian posted revenue of more than $250 million in 2020.
Hometown: Southfield, Michigan Education: GMI Engineering & Management Institute, now Kettering University (undergraduate)
Jeff Lackey
PRESIDENT CBTS
Lackey, who joined CBTS in 2016, held a number of executive roles including COO before taking the top job in 2020. In January, the company announced the creation of more than 100 new jobs after an agreement with the Ohio Tax Credit Authority and JobsOhio to expand its fiber networks and technology and professional services. The company posted $617 million in sales in 2020.
Hometown: Bunker Hill, Indiana Education: Indiana University (undergraduate)
Jay Lambke
PRESIDENT Government Acquisitions Inc.
Lambke has led the IT firm since 2013. GAI counts many federal government agencies as clients, including the IRS, USDA, Social Security Administration, and Army, providing and supporting capabilities such as cybersecurity, cloud computing, data center modernization, artificial intelligence, and robotic process automation. It posted $320 million in revenue for 2020.
Doug Lang
PRESIDENT Meyer Tool
Lang, who has been with the company since 1981, was named the top executive in 2016. Founded in 1951, Meyer provides precision components to the aerospace and gas turbine manufacturing sectors and employs more than 950 people at 12 locations in North America and Europe. It posted revenue of $255 million in 2020.
Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Keeping the production lines running to meet customer needs. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? Not really changed. I’m still focused on producing quality products on time and continuing to build a great team. Our strength is in our people.
John Mactaggart
PRESIDENT AND CEO Field Aerospace
Mactaggart is the top executive at the Kenwood-based aviation company that delivers special mission aircraft solutions to customers around the world from facilities in Oklahoma City, Toronto, and Calgary. Former Chairman Dan Magarian, one of five shareholders who acquired Field Aviation in 2012, sold his stake in the company to Trive Capital Partners of Dallas in 2020 and became a founding partner in the Roebling Capital Partners private equity firm.
Tom Nies
CEO Cincom Systems
Nies was working for IBM in 1968 when he decided that software was the future of business information technology. Cincom is one of the largest international independent software companies in the world, and Nies is the longest-serving CEO in the computer industry. Cincom has 17 locations around the world and posted revenue of more than $80 million in 2020.
Hometown: Cincinnati Education: University of Cincinnati (undergraduate and MBA) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? Maintaining positive and active contact with the marketplace. Has your leadership approach changed because of the pandemic? No change. The key issues have remained constant.
Ken Oaks
CEO AND CHAIRMAN Total Quality Logistics
Oaks has grown the privately held company he founded in 1997 into the largest in Greater Cincinnati and second-largest freight brokerage firm in the U.S. The firm has more than 2,000 employees locally and more than 5,000 at 56 locations in 26 states. The company is the naming rights partner of FC Cincinnati’s West End stadium. It had revenue of about $4.1 billion in 2020.
Andrea Pirondini
CEO Prysmian Group North America
Pirondini was promoted in February to oversee North American operations of Prysmian Group, the Italian company that owns Highland Heights-based General Cable. He replaces Massimo Battaini, who was moved to global responsibilities within Prysmian. The company manufactures underground and submarine cables and systems for power transmission and distribution, and optical fiber and copper cable for voice, video, and data transmission with operations in more than 50 countries.
Joe Raver
PRESIDENT AND CEO Hillenbrand
Raver, who has led the diversified manufacturing firm for eight years, will retire on January 1 and be replaced by Executive Vice President Kim Ryan. Raver negotiated the almost $2 billion acquisition of Milacron Holdings in 2019 and has worked for Hillenbrand for 27 years. Ryan, who has been with the company for 33 years, was president of Batesville Casket among other roles in her career. Hillenbrand reported revenue of more than $2.5 billion in 2020.
Ron Rosenbeck
CEO Republic Wire
Rosenbeck was one of three founders of a copper wire manufacturer in 1982. After buying out his partners, Republic started to manufacture multiple kinds of aluminum and copper wire for distributors, utilities, and municipalities, eventually expanding to a 350,000-square-foot operation in West Chester and a network of 20 sales representatives covering the U.S. Republic posted revenue of $260 million in 2020.
Education: Miami University (undergraduate)
Steve Shifman
PRESIDENT AND CEO Michelman
Shifman, who has led family-owned enterprise since 2003, will move to Executive Chairman next year and be replaced by Richard Michelman, who is currently Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President for the Americas. The Blue Ash-based firm, founded in 1949, manufactures water-, vapor-, and grease-resistant coatings for the packaging industry. It had revenue of more than $210 million in 2020.
Hometown: Springfield, Ohio Education: University of Colorado (undergraduate), Xavier University (MBA)
John Richardson
CHAIRMAN SugarCreek
Since 1990, Richardson has led the food manufacturing business started by his father in 1966. The company announced plans for two major projects this year: $10 million to create a new production facility in Sharonville that will add 235 jobs, and the creation of headquarters campus in Blue Ash with five buildings and an event center. It employs more than 2,800 people at locations in Ohio, Indiana, and Kansas and posted $800 million in revenue in 2020.
Hometown: Washington Court House, Ohio Education: Illinois State University (undergraduate) What has been the toughest challenge for you as a business leader during the COVID-19 pandemic? In a word, labor. If this pandemic has shown us anything it’s how important out people are to the business. We simply can’t do it without them, and we have to pay them, be flexible with their schedule, and keep them safe.
John Slattery
PRESIDENT AND CEO GE Aviation
Slattery, who worked for Brazilian aerospace firm Embraer, took over leadership of the region’s third-largest manufacturer last year. In July, the company announced the Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines (RISE) program with Safran of France, its partner in CFM International, to develop the next generation of engines with goal of reducing emissions by 20 percent. It has about 9,000 employees at its Evendale headquarters and manufacturing facility, in support and services in Hebron, and at a testing site in Peebles.
James Stahl Jr.
PRESIDENT CBT Co.
In 1975, Stahl bought the distributor of electrical and mechanical products that began as the Belting Company of Cincinnati 100 years ago. Stahl grew the firm from five employees to more than 200. In 2016, it built a central headquarters on Ridge Road in Columbia Township and added a distribution center in Sidney, 40 miles north of Dayton. It posted revenue of $214 million in 2020.
Hometown: Pittsburgh (born) and Cincinnati (raised) Education: University of Notre Dame (undergraduate), University of Virginia (MBA)
Larry Stoddard
PRESIDENT AND CEO RelaDyne
Stoddard, who has led the company since 2010, has grown the producer of lubricants, fuel, diesel exhaust fluid, and industrial reliability services to become one of the largest private businesses in Greater Cincinnati with more than $2 billion in revenue in 2019. It continued its aggressive acquisition strategy, buying California-based Alexis Oil and Global Industrial Solutions in July. Last year it purchased New West Oil of Arizona and Nick Barbieri Trucking of California.
Greg Tucker
CEO ProAmpac
Tucker leads the Springdale-based flexible packaging company owned by Pritzker Private Capital. He oversees a growing operation (six acquisitions this year) that has 45 manufacturing centers on three continents with more than 5,700 employees serving over 5,000 customers in eight countries. Since Tucker’s arrival in 2015, annual revenue has grown from $446 million to almost $1.5 billion last year.
Hometown: Boston Education: Worchester Polytechnic Institute (undergraduate)
Mike Venerable
CEO CincyTech
Venerable leads the firm that galvanized the growth of high potential startups in Greater Cincinnati. His fingerprints are all over the seed fund’s mission of working with entrepreneurs, investors, research institutions, and community stakeholders to fund technology and life science startups. CincyTech’s move to the University of Cincinnati 1819 Innovation Hub in 2019 helped kickstart the rebirth of the Reading Road-Martin Luther King Drive interchange.
Matt Ventura, Pete Ventura, James Steger
OWNERS Integrity Express Logistics
The partners founded Integrity Express Logistics in 2007 and have built it into the third-largest logistics company in Greater Cincinnati with locations in Ohio, Tennessee, and Florida. It opened a new location in Orlando, its ninth overall and second in Florida. In March, it sold a minority stake to Eve Partners, an investment firm in Jacksonville. Integrity Express posted revenue of more than $545 million in 2020.
Paul Verst
CEO Verst Logistics
Since 1993, Verst has led the Walton-based company founded by his father Bill in 1966. He has help grow it into a multi-faceted fulfillment, packaging, transportation, and warehousing operation with more than 7 million square feet. It posted $255 million in revenue in 2020. Verst and Corporex Chairman William Butler gave a combined gift of $1 million to the Dan Beard Council of Boy Scouts and will help supervise the construction of the Eagle Leadership Lodge at Camp Michaels in Union.
Hometown: Cold Spring Education: Xavier University (undergraduate and MBA)
