Kincannon & Reed Assists American Vanguard Corporation with CEO Search
December 16, 2024 – Executive recruitment firm Kincannon & Reed, which exclusively focuses on food, agribusiness, and the related life sciences, has assisted in the recruitment of Douglas Kaye as the new CEO of American Vanguard Corporation in Newport Beach, CA. Heinrich Gugger and Stephen Coffey spearheaded the search. Eric G. Wintemute concluded his position as CEO with American Vanguard this past summer. “We are excited to welcome Dak to American Vanguard,” said Scott Baskin, lead director of the board. “His appointment is the result of a comprehensive search process that attracted many outstanding candidates. We are pleased that Dak has agreed to join American Vanguard to spearhead the next phase of the company’s business transformation. We believe that Dak is the right executive to drive the company to achieve its transformation goal of generating an adjusted EBITDA margin of 15 percent and to strategically position the company for future growth.
“I also want to thank the members of the office of the CEO for their leadership in the interim,” he said. “While managing several significant changes simultaneously, they also jumpstarted the business transformation and the company has greatly benefited from their hard work and dedication.”
Mr. Kaye brings extensive experience to AVD and is expected to lead the company into a new era of growth and innovation. For the past 13 years, he has served in a variety of senior leadership roles at Albaugh, LLC, a top ten global crop protection company. Mr. Kaye most recently held the role of president, North America, which is the largest region in the company. Previously, he was group chief commercial officer, where he oversaw the commercial activities, which included North America, Europe, Brazil, Argentina, and Latin America regions. Mr. Kaye also served as president of the European region for seven years.
Prior to his work at Albaugh, he was the CFO and a Director at a non-crop subsidiary of the crop protection company, Adama, and previously held the role of Co-CEO at an international automotive logistics organization. Mr. Kaye began his career at Arthur Andersen, LLP. He was recently elected to the Executive Board of the industry group CropLife America (CLA).
“I am grateful to be named American Vanguard’s chief executive officer at this important point in the company’s history,” Mr. Kaye said. “I have admired American Vanguard for many years. I view it as having strong relationships with customers by providing solutions that customers know and trust. I’m confident we can accelerate the transformation underway, driving revenue growth and margin improvement. I look forward to leading the team to success.”
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American Vanguard Corporation is a diversified specialty and agricultural products company that develops and markets products for crop protection and management, turf and ornamentals management and public and animal health. Over the past 20 years, through product and business acquisitions, the company has expanded its operations into 21 countries and now has over 1,000 product registrations in 56 nations worldwide.
Serving the Food, Agribusiness, and the Related Life Sciences Sectors
Founded in 1981, Kincannon & Reed serves clients throughout the world from locations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The firm is based in Arlington, VA. Kincannon & Reed’s mission is: “We recruit leaders for organizations that feed the world and keep it healthy.”
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Dr. Gugger is based in the agriculture and bioscience hub of Research Triangle Park, NC. Involved in hundreds of executive placements across the industry since joining Kincannon & Reed in 2012, he brings his broad network and executive experience from his roles as CEO in several start-up opportunities, including serving as CEO of Paradigm Genetics and his role as president of Syngenta Crop Protection, to each search engagement.
Located in Saratoga, NY, Mr. Coffey joined Kincannon & Reed after 15 years of search experience working with Fortune 100 clients on a global scale. As a member of a two-person team, he executed senior information technology searches for one of the Big Three automotive manufacturers. He was also responsible for relationship management with the global talent acquisition lead for a Fortune 50 conglomerate, filling executive-level roles across life sciences, test and measurement, and corporate units.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
