The president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association, Tony Radoszewski, has left the group, following significant staff turnover and difficult decisions to cancel the NPE trade show during his short tenure.
The Washington-based association unexpectedly announced the change March 28, saying that Radoszewski's last day was March 25.
Tad McGwire, the chairman of the association's board of directors, declined in a March 28 interview to talk about why Radoszewski was no longer leading the group. He said he led the association during a difficult time and that they thanked him for his leadership over the last two and a half years.
"At this point, I would just phrase it that he's no longer with PLASTICS [as the association calls itself]," McGwire said. "We're grateful for Tony's efforts. He led the organization during a very difficult time. As of today, we're in great shape."
McGwire said the organization told staff of the decision March 28 and could have more to communicate about next steps later in the week.
"There's no precipitous event that drove this," he said. "Again, there's not a lot of detail for me to offer at this point."
McGwire said the group did not name an interim CEO but said it would be led by its executive leadership team, including Glenn Anderson, its vice president of industry and member relations, Wayne Popham, its chief financial officer and Matt Seaholm, its vice president of government affairs.
Radoszewski was named president and CEO in July 2019, coming to the association after nearly 14 years as president of the Plastics Pipe Institute in Irving, Texas, and from a nearly 40-year career in the plastics resin and pipe industries.
The association, which has about 850 member companies and is one of the industry's two largest trade groups in Washington, had seen a sizable turnover in its executive and senior management positions in recent months.
Those leaving in late 2021 or early this year included the group's chief economist, Perc Pineda, who was a member of its executive leadership team, as well as the staff heads of two of its key councils: Michael Werner, the head of the group's Equipment Council, and George Southworth, director of its Processors Council.
Another high-profile staffer to leave in January was its top government affairs lobbyist for the West Coast.
Radoszewski said last month that the departures were related to the "Great Resignation" of people rethinking jobs from the pandemic, and from the public pressures around plastics environmental concerns.
In addition, two of its vice presidents — in charge of its communications and NPE trade show efforts and also members of the top executive team — both left in mid-2021 and have not been replaced, at least yet.
Radoszewski's tenure was marked by substantial changes among top executives almost from the beginning.
A few months after he started, he instituted a management shakeup that removed several executives hired by his predecessor, Bill Carteaux, who had died of acute myeloid leukemia in December 2018.
The most senior departure in that January 2020 shakeup was Patty Long, who had been its chief operating officer and second-ranking leader. She had also served as the group's interim president and CEO after Carteaux died.
As well, those 2020 changes included three vice presidents, in charge of communications and media, industry affairs, and technical and industry affairs.
The association also had challenges from COVID-19 during Radoszewski's tenure, including the cancellation of its NPE2021 trade show in May 2021.
The association faced difficult decisions around having the show, with some exhibiting companies pushing in late 2020 for the group to cancel it out of fears it could be a COVID-19 superspreader event because vaccine levels would not be high enough in the U.S. by the time of the May event.
The show attracts tens of thousands of people to the convention center in Orlando, Fla.
Ultimately, the association canceled the trade fair in early January 2021, but then faced difficulties over how to handle refunds of deposits and paying bills the association had already incurred.
NPE, which is North America's largest plastics fair, happens every three years and provides about half of the association's operating revenues.
In an interview in February, Radoszewski said the association was "financially stable" and had built up reserves after the 2008-2009 economic downturn hurt NPE2009 and created at the time a $3.2 million hole in the association's budget.
NPE provides about $35 million to the group, which it spreads over three years of operations.
As well, the association got a loan in 2021 from the government's Paycheck Protection Program, designed to help companies struggling with the financial effects of the pandemic.
Radoszewski's tenure was shorter than predecessors. Carteaux led the association from 2005 until his death in 2018, and the two CEOs before him, Don Duncan and Larry Thomas, held the job for five years and 11 years, respectively.
Radoszewski spoke at the Plastics News Executive Forum March 23, in his job as CEO.