Tredegar Corp. has named a new president and chief executive officer to succeed John D. Gottwald, who is retiring after three lengthy stints over 30 years as top executive for the Chesterfield County-based manufacturer of plastic films and aluminum extrusions.
Tredegar said its board of directors has elected John M. Steitz as president and chief executive officer.
Steitz has been on the Tredegar board of directors since 2017. He was CEO of Addivant Corp., a global supplier of polymer additives, from March 2015 until January of this year.
He previously worked in executive roles for chemicals and materials manufacturers such as PQ Corp. and Avantor Performance Materials, and he worked for 20 years in various roles for Mallinckrodt Inc., a maker of specialty pharmaceuticals and imaging agents.
Steitz also worked from 2007 to 2012 as executive vice president and chief operating officer for Albemarle Corp., a specialty chemicals company that was formerly based in Richmond before moving its headquarters to Baton Rouge, La., in 2008. He was president and chief operating officer of Albemarle from March 2012 through August 2012.
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Gottwald, 64, will continue to serve as a member of Tredegar’s board and its executive committee, the company said.
The transition is expected to become effective on March 18, when the company plans to file its annual report for 2018.
Gottwald became Tredegar’s president and CEO in 1989 when the company was created as a spinoff from the additives company Ethyl Corp., now called NewMarket Corp., another Richmond-based company managed by other members of the Gottwald family.
He served his first stint as CEO until 2001.
Gottwald stepped back into the CEO role for two other stretches — from 2006 to 2010 and then again in 2015 when the company’s then-president and CEO, Nancy M. Taylor, abruptly resigned.
In the two years leading up her departure, John Gottwald and his brother William M. Gottwald, who serves as Tredegar’s board chairman, had pushed for the company to make strategic changes in its business. A proxy battle for control of the board was avoided in 2014 when the company named three new independent directors.
The Gottwald brothers, along with their father, Floyd D. Gottwald Jr., owned 22 percent of Tredegar’s common stock as of the company’s last proxy statement in March 2018, making them the largest shareholder group.
Tredegar has about 3,200 employees in its global operations. The company has manufacturing plants in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. It makes plastic films used in personal care products, packaging and other applications.
The company also has a division that makes aluminum extrusions for building and construction, automobiles and other uses.
Tredegar reported profit of about $38.3 million on revenue of about $1 billion for its 2017 fiscal year. Profit was up from $24.5 million in 2016 and a loss of $32 million in 2015.
For the first nine months of 2018, the company reported a loss of $1.3 million, or 4 cents per share, compared with profit of $56.2 million, of $1.70 per share, for the same period of 2017. Revenue for the first nine months of 2018 was $801.3 million, compared with $753.5 million for the same period of 2017.
A phone message seeking comment from Gottwald or Steitz was not returned Thursday.
In a statement released by the company, William Gottwald congratulated his brother on his retirement and said the company is “thankful to have his continued service on the board of directors.”
“We are fortunate to have John Steitz as his successor,” William Gottwald said in the statement. “John brings impressive experience as both a CEO and COO and has a long track record of business success generally and in the chemical industry, in particular. Another plus is that he knows Tredegar, having served as an active and valuable member of our board.”