Kalamazoo, MI - Bill Main, President and CEO of Landscape Forms, has announced his planned retirement from the company at the end of 2014 and named Richard E. Heriford, former VP of Sales and Marketing, to succeed him as president, effective immediately. Main, who has led Landscape Forms since 1994, will become Executive Chairman of the Kalamazoo-based company, the largest manufacturer of outdoor site and street furnishings in North America and an international leader in site furniture design. In his new role, Main will chair the Board of Directors and maintain a direct reporting relationship with the new president during a three-year transition designed to ensure seamless continuity in culture, strategy and operations. During that period he will remain active in investor relations, special projects, and company representation to customers and the landscape architecture profession. Main explained: “We have been discussing the subject of succession for some time and are now prepared to implement a thoughtfully deliberated plan. Landscape Forms is in an excellent position for this transition. We are growing and profitable. We are market leaders. And we have a strong team of people in place.”
The succession plan retains an executive management team and marketing strategy that have tripled Landscape Forms revenues in a decade. Since joining the company in 2000, incoming president Richard E. Heriford has worked closely with Main on an aggressive strategy aimed at growth and making Landscape Forms the global leader in site furniture. The result has been a major evolution of the company. Heriford, an architect by training, spearheaded collaborations with internationally renowned designers including frog design, BMW Group DesignworksUSA, Margaret McCurry, Robert A.M. Stern, and Yves Behar that have burnished the company’s reputation as a design leader and produced innovative product collections for an international marketplace. He created new customer engagement activities including roundtables, charrettes, whitepapers and online community access in which design practitioners, students and professional organizations can address issues critical to the built and landscape environments.
Heriford will take the helm with an executive team steeped in Landscape Forms’ participatory culture and open-book management. Becky Fulgoni, daughter of Landscape Forms’ founder John Chipman, Sr. and a vice president of the company since 2000, has been named Executive Vice President for People and Operations. Conrad Sutter, VP of Finance at Landscape Forms for the past thirteen years, remains in that position. Arno Yurk, Vice President of Design, is actively involved in the selection of an experienced design professional to succeed him as he takes long anticipated retirement in 2012 after 25 years of service. Richard Heriford will continue to head Sales and Marketing and build that leadership team for the future. And two key managers have been named directors of the company: Rick Utting, as Director of Product Engineering and Kal Kalkowski, as Director of Manufacturing Systems.
The succession plan, developed in close coordination with the privately held company’s Board of Directors, preserves the Landscape Forms legacy of leadership by a design professional. Founded in 1969 by a landscape architect and succeeded in the presidency by a landscape architect, the company now has an architect as its top executive. Richard Heriford describes his vision for the future: “We remain true to our principals of Design, People, and Operational Excellence and committed to our goal of being the global premium brand of site furniture. We have implemented a plan that works and we will keep to that plan as we build a 21st century company. We will continue to pursue steady growth by introducing compelling new products that expand our appeal to our current Landscape Architect customers and to a larger community of Architects and Interior Designers. We will add new product categories, establish new markets in countries where economies are growing and design is respected, and employ lean processes and new technology to maximize opportunities. In this, the strongest single business quarter in the history of Landscape Forms, we will move forward with people, principles and strategies that our customers, employees, investors and the community know and trust.”
About Landscape Forms
Since its founding in 1969 Landscape Forms has earned a reputation for excellent design, high quality products and exceptional service. The Landscape Forms U.S. headquarters and manufacturing facility is located in Kalamazoo, Michigan with sales offices throughout North America, the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, the United Arab Emirates and Asia. Landscape Forms collaborates with renowned industrial designers and consultancies, landscape architects, and architects to design and develop integrated collections of products that address emerging needs and help create a sense of place. The company has an installed base of products around the world. Clients include municipalities, transit centers, corporate, college and health care campuses; and familiar brand leaders such as Boeing, Cisco Systems, Disney, Sprint, American Airlines, Herman Miller and Nike. Landscape Forms was recently named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the Top 15 Small Workplaces in the US. www.landscapeforms.com
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