The Sherwin-Williams Company (Cleveland, Ohio, USA) announced that its Board of Directors has elected Heidi G. Petz to serve as the company’s next chief executive officer (CEO), effective January 1, 2024. Petz, who has served as president and chief operating officer (COO) of Sherwin-Williams for the last two years, will assume the CEO duties currently held by chairman and CEO John G. Morikis, who has held the latter title since 2016.
Petz will continue to serve as president, while Morikis will continue to serve as executive chairman. In addition, the Board increased its size from 10 to 11 members and elected Petz to fill the resulting vacancy, effective October 10, 2023.
“Today’s announcement follows a comprehensive process and multi-year organizational succession plan to identify the best candidate to lead the Company,” says Morikis. “Heidi has been an invaluable member of my leadership team, demonstrating a record of driving growth and operational excellence that has generated increased revenue for our customers, shareholders, and employees. With this transition, Heidi becomes only the tenth CEO in the 157-year history of the Company. Supported by a deep and experienced senior leadership team, she is the right leader to accelerate achievement of the Company’s growth and profitability goals.”
Prior to serving as the company’s president and COO, Petz served as president of The Americas Group and of the Consumer Brands Group, successfully leading both of these global businesses through some of the most challenging periods in the company’s history. Petz joined the company in June 2017 in connection with the Valspar acquisition.
“The selection of Heidi as CEO is the result of a well-developed and thoughtful process to ensure a seamless leadership transition that focuses on strength, momentum, and growth,” says Jeff M. Fettig, Sherwin-Williams lead director. “We are pleased John has agreed to remain in his role as Executive Chairman, continuing an incredible career that began 39 years ago as a member of one of the first Sherwin-Williams management trainee classes, progressing through numerous roles of increasing responsibility, and ultimately ascending to CEO. On behalf of the entire Board, we thank John for his extraordinary leadership, commitment, and dedication to Sherwin-Williams, as well as his many accomplishments and business decisions that drove the Company’s strong performance and unprecedented growth during his tenure as CEO.”
Petz will be surrounded by a highly experienced group of leaders, which remains intact and averages 27 years of Sherwin-Williams experience. Allen J. Mistysyn will continue as senior vice president – finance and chief financial officer, and Justin T. Binns, Karl J. Jorgenrud, and Tood D. Rea will continue as leaders of the company’s reportable segments. Colin M. Davie will lead the global supply chain organization, inclusive of global manufacturing operations, which will continue to be led by Joseph F. Sladek. Binns and Jorgenrud will assume additional enterprise-wide responsibilities, including greater engagement with the global supply chain organization to accelerate customer solutions and drive productivity.
On October 11, the company conducted a conference call to discuss the announcement. An archived replay of the webcast is available here.
Source: Sherwin-Williams, https://investors.sherwin-williams.com.