After just more than two months with an interim CEO at its helm, Myers Industries Inc. in Akron, Ohio, has named a new CEO.
After conducting a comprehensive search, Myers reported Nov. 21 that it has named Aaron Schapper as its new CEO, effective Jan. 1. He will also join the company's board of directors on his start date.
Schapper will take the reins from interim CEO Dave Basque, who has been interim president and CEO since Sept. 9 and will return to his role as vice president over special projects.
Basque filled in after Mike McGaugh stepped down after a little more than four years in which Myers undertook a series of acquisitions — with a focus on investments in rotational molding — including Elkhart Plastics, Trilogy Plastics and a Step2 facility in Georgia.
Its most recent acquisition, in January, was the $350 million purchase of Texas-based Signature Systems, a company that makes composite ground-protection devices. Myers also does injection molding and extrusion.
Myers is now the second-largest rotomolder in North America, according to Plastics News data, with $225 million in sales in the region, Myers had corporate sales of $813 million in 2023, according to its annual report.
Schapper is an outsider to the plastics business, spending the last eight years with Valmont Industries Inc., a Nebraska-based company that posted sales of $4.2 billion in 2023 and provides equipment and technology for the infrastructure and agriculture markets.
At Valmont, Schapper was most recently the company's chief strategy officer, and before that served as president of the company's Infrastructure and Utility Support Structures groups.
At Myers, he will be paid an initial base salary of $800,000 and eligible to participate in the company's annual incentive program at an initial target of 100 percent of his annual base salary for calendar year 2025, the company reported in an SEC filing. Schapper could also earn additional income with a grant-date value of $2.5 million from the company's long-term incentive program in the form of restricted stock and performance stock units, based on the company's performance and vesting over three years.
Schapper will also receive an onboarding grant of stock options to purchase 125,000 shares of Myers common stock at a price equal to the price of a share on the intended grant date of Jan. 2, 2025, subject to pro-rata annual vesting in one-third increments on the first three anniversaries of that date.
Myers shares have recently been trading at about $11.50 to $12.50 per share.
"I am grateful to be named Myers' president and chief executive officer at this important inflection point for the company," said Schapper, who is 51, in the company's release. "I am confident we can accelerate Myers' ongoing transformation, further hone our strategic focus, capitalize on demand recovery and growth opportunities, and capture productivity and efficiency gains throughout the organization."
Myers has two primary business units that operate both domestically and internationally. It provides a range of plastics and metal products through its material-handling segment, such as containers and small-parts storage bins and fuel and water tanks for recreational vehicles, marine applications and other uses. Its distribution segment distributes tools, equipment, and supplies used for tire, wheel and under-vehicle service of cars, trucks and off-road vehicles.