Manufacturing 2024: JOHN M. STEITZ

In 2019, Steitz was named president and CEO of plastic films and aluminum extrusions manufacturer Tredegar, a 1989 spinoff of Richmond fuel additives company Ethyl.

Steitz had served on Tredegar’s board of directors since 2017 while also serving as CEO of polymer additives supplier Addivant, which merged with SI Group in 2018. He was also a director of specialty-grade phosphate producer Innophos Holdings from 2008 until 2020, when it was acquired.

In September 2023, Tredegar entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Terphane flexible packaging films business to Oben Group for $116 million, subject to Brazilian and Colombian authorities’ approvals. Headquartered in Brazil, with manufacturing sites in Brazil and New York, Terphane has about 500 employees.

In May, Tredegar said that the Brazilian General Superintendence of the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (SG-CADE) had issued a non-binding opinion recommending rejection of the transaction. The case is with the CADE Tribunal; CADE’s final decision deadline is Nov. 18. The Colombian authority cleared the merger review in February.

Steitz holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an MBA from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.