Lydall Brings in New CEO From Outside

Lydall LDL (NYSE), a manufacturer of thermal and acoustical barriers, automotive heat shields, and insulation products used by the auto industry and in industrial kilns and furnaces announced the impending retirement of its CEO David Freeman and his replacement, Dale Bernhart. Freeman who has been CEO since 2003 and a board member since 1998 plans to retire in October after a transition period.

According to today's anouncement,

Barnhart (age 55) comes to Lydall from Synventive Molding Solutions where he has served as Chief Executive Officer since 2004. Synventive is a provider of hot runner systems, machine nozzles, temperature controllers and sprue bushings for the injection molding industry. The company, with operations in the United States, Europe, and China, supplies the automotive, electronics, and cellular communications industries, among others. He and his team developed a business plan focused on products strategy, Asian expansion, and lean implementation and grew the business by 16 percent in two years and nearly doubled EBITDA in one year. Previous to Synventive Molding Solutions, Barnhart spent some time as a consultant working with two private equity groups. From 2000 to 2003, he was President of Invensys Climate Control with responsibility for a $1.2 billion global business unit providing products and services to the heating, ventilating and air conditioning and commercial refrigeration markets. Previous to that, Barnhart held various senior management positions at Ranco North America, WolverineTube, Emerson Electric (Copeland Corporation), and BF Goodrich. Barnhart holds ME and BS degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky.

The key to Barnhart's background was his experience as president of Invensys, a similar company to Lydall, where he had responsibility for over 8,500 employees and his work with private equity firms. Also his most recent position as CEO of Synventive gave him direct expertise as it related to the automotive industry, a real plus for his new position. His appointment comes shortly after Lydall announced mediocre financial results for the last quarter.

Barnhart appears to be a good choice who should be capable of coming up to speed quickly in his new position and capable of developing new ideas for running the business.

For more on the management change see:

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Forbes
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