BUILDER / RE TAILER
CORPORATE, INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP
DURING CHALLENGING TIMES by Patrick Revere
W
William “Bill” Boor has run the gamut in the corporate world, from homebuilding to mining to wallboard to beer and back. Leading teams and organizations is what drives him. “My career has been a series of executive positions in large public companies,” he said. Boor met former Cavco CEO Joe Stegmayer in 2001 during their time with Centex Corporation in Dallas. “I joined a year or two after Joe in a corporate strategy role,” Boor said of Centex. “He actually interviewed me for that role, and we worked together and I was learning about the industry from Joe.” When Cavco spun off from the site-built company and Stegmayer went with it, the two maintained contact. Boor went on to hold jobs at Eagle Materials, Cliffs Natural Resources, and Great Lakes Brewing Company. In 2008, with the manufactured housing industry facing a tremendous lull amid the housing bust, credit crunch, and subsequent recession, Boor was asked to join Cavco’s board of directors. “That was before the Fleetwood and Palm Harbor acquisitions,” Boor said. “I was able to be on the board for that transition of Cavco from a regional manufacturer 36 | 2020 INDUSTRY AWARDS EDITION • MHINSIDER.COM
into a national leader in the industry through those transactions. Despite the challenging times, Cavco was well-positioned to buy these larger companies that also brought retail and financial services businesses to the portfolio.”
Head of Cavco Industries In early 2019, Boor had taken on the chairman role and the board was considering options for filling the CEO position vacated by Stegmayer a few months earlier. His fellow directors asked Boor whether he would consider taking on the new challenge. The decision to take on the CEO role at Cavco was a difficult one for Boor. When the opportunity arose, his family had developed deep roots in Cleveland, Ohio and he had largely settled on retiring in the brewing industry. “Every time in my career that I think I have it all figured out…,” Boor intoned, “Next thing I know, a new and interesting challenge is a possibility. I had to make a hard choice between two really good opportunities. I have a history with Cavco, and we’d made some real progress together in growing its presence in the industry.
