Plastics News has named four finalists for its annual Chief Financial Officer of the Year award, which will be presented in an awards ceremony on March 13.
The finalists are Shane O'Keeffe of Mergon Group, Kristin Warfel of Graham Packaging Co., Dennis Norman of Novolex and Maurizio Rizza of International Precision Components Corp. (IPC).
Nominations were judged by PN along with an independent panel of professional financial practitioners. Criteria included leadership, ethics, business growth, strategic transactions, challenges met and industry/civic contributions.
The winner will be named as part of the Plastics News Executive Forum, scheduled for March 11-13 in Clearwater Beach, Fla.
Mergon Group is an Ireland-based injection and blow molder with U.S. operations in Anderson, S.C.
Graham Packaging is a Lancaster, Pa.-based blow molder with operations in North and South America and Europe.
Novolex is a manufacturer of foodservice, packaging and industrial products based in Hartsville, S.C.
IPC is an injection molder specializing in industrial packaging based in Lake Forest, Ill.
Joe Pryweller, PN's senior director of conference and event content, will moderate a panel discussion with the finalists at the Executive Forum, where they will discuss operating challenges, controlling costs, setting budgets and other topics that concern the plastics industry.
Previous PN CFO of the Year winners include Jim Beadle of Teel Plastics LLC, Angela Breitbach of Radius Packaging, LaStacia Dalton of Zeon Chemicals LP, Michael Plotzke of Plastipak Holdings Inc., Paul Hogan of Nelipak Healthcare Packaging, Glenn Fish of Tekni-Plex Inc. and Morgan Endecott of Innovative Injection Technologies Inc. (i2tech).
The sponsors of the 2024 CFO of the Year award are P&M Corporate Finance and Plante & Moran PLLC.