Wabash National CEO Dick Giromini to Step Down June 1
Wabash National Corp. CEO Dick Giromini will hand off company leadership on June 1 to President and Chief Operating Officer Brent Yeagy. Giromini will stay on as an executive adviser to Yeagy.
Giromini has been with Wabash more than 15 years, the last decade as CEO. He joined the trailer manufacturer in 2002 and became president and CEO in 2007. Giromini began his transportation career in 1976 with General Motors.
Michael Baudendistel, a stock analyst with Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., said that Giromini leaves Wabash in good shape after some tough years.
“He’s going out on top,” said Baudendistel, who covers equipment and component manufacturers. “He took the company through the recession and the recovery.”
Giromini successfully moved the company into new areas and that has meant better margins and cash flow, Stephens Inc. Managing Director Brad Delco said.
“Dick Giromini was instrumental in diversifying the company,” said Delco. “There’s less dependence on the cyclical dry van market. Wabash has evolved into a multifaceted industrial manufacturer.”
Yeagy
Yeagy joined Wabash in 2003 and has served as a vice president of manufacturing and commercial trailer products. He was appointed to his current positions in October 2016. Prior to Wabash, Yeagy was with Delco Remy International.
Lafayette, Ind.-based Wabash National manufactures a wide range of products for freight transportation, including dry van, refrigerated, platform and bulk tank trailers, dry and refrigerated truck bodies, truck-mounted tanks, intermodal equipment, aircraft equipment, structural composite panels and specialty products.
Wabash reported 2016 net income of $119.4 million on net sales of $1.85 billion, compared with net income of $104.3 million on net sales of $2.03 billion in 2015. Wabash said it owned 20% of the North American trailer market in 2016.
The company expects to ship 53,500 to 55,500 trailers in 2017, and reported a backlog of $670 million in orders for its trailers in the third quarter.
Wabash National via YouTube
Wabash also named Mike Petit senior vice president and group president of its Final Mile Products division, a new reporting segment that includes the Supreme and Wabash National truck bodies groups in addition to equipment used in e-commerce and home-delivery markets.
Petit has been vice president of finance and investor relations since 2014, and has concurrently been the head of Supreme since August 2017. Mark D. Weber, who had been CEO of Supreme Industries since 2013, stepped down to pursue other opportunities, Wabash said.
Wabash also said that John G. Boss has joined its board of directors. Boss is CEO of Momentive Performance Materials and MPM Holdings.
Wabash was founded in 1985 and went public in 1991.
