Ira Boots will retire from his position as chairman and CEO of Berry Plastics Corp. effective Oct. 4. His replacement as CEO will be Jonathan Rich, the president and CEO of Momentive Performance Materials in Albany, N.Y.
Boots, 56, will remain as a director and as a business consultant of Evansville-based Berry.
Boots has been a Berry employee since 1978, and CEO since 2001. During his career, Berry has grown from about $4 million in annual net sales to more than $4 billion, and has acquired 30 firms.
“Berry Plastics is a special company. Our customers, employees, communities, vendors and investors have created a rare business with proven success. I am grateful for the opportunity to be a small part of Berry's incredible journey,” Boots said in a news release.
Prior to Momentive, Rich held executive positions at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., including president of Goodyear North American Tire and president of Goodyear Chemical. He began his career at General Electric Co. in 1982.
Rich has a bachelor's of science from Iowa State University, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin.
“I am very excited to join the world class team at Berry Plastics. Berry has grown tremendously under the leadership of Ira Boots, and I look forward to continuing that tradition,” he said.
