PolyOne Corp.'s William Patient has retired for the second time in the past seven years.
Patient retired from the board of directors at its May 25 annual meeting in Cleveland. He had served as lead director since February, when Stephen Newlin was named chairman, president and chief executive officer of Avon Lake, Ohio-based PolyOne, North America's largest compounder.
Patient, 72, originally retired from PolyOne predecessor Geon Co. in 1999, one year before Geon merged with M.A. Hanna Co. to form PolyOne.
In 2003, Patient made an unexpected return to PolyOne as nonexecutive chairman. Patient's role was to work with PolyOne CEO Thomas Waltermire in an attempt to revive the struggling company. At the time, PolyOne was in its third straight year of financial losses. The company lost almost $300 million total in its first five years of operation.
Waltermire, who had worked with Patient since their days at Goodrich, resigned in October 2005. Patient then became interim CEO until Newlin's hiring. PolyOne recently posted first-quarter profit of almost $49 million, its best-ever first quarter showing.
PolyOne board member Farah Walters, former president and CEO of University Hospitals of Cleveland, has replaced Patient as the firm's lead director.