In February, the Swiss equipment manufacturer appointed Imakoji as Liebherr USA’s second managing director, jointly sharing executive responsibilities with Kai Friedrich, who has served as its Newport News-based managing director since 2021.

Imakoji oversees strategic planning and the execution of growth strategies for corporate, finance and administrative functions. Liebherr USA provides sales and service on behalf of 10 product segments: earthmoving, material handling technology, mining, mobile and crawler cranes, tower cranes, concrete technology, maritime cranes, deep foundation machines components and refrigerators and freezers.

In 2024, Liebherr Mining Equipment announced a $72.3 million expansion of a facility at the border of Hampton and Newport News, where it has had a presence since 1970, and the addition of 175 jobs, adding to its 550 current workers.

Beginning his career as an intern with Austria’s Liebherr-Werk Nenzing, Imakoji has worked for more than 17 years with the Liebherr Group, including positions in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. Most recently, he was managing director of finance and administration at Liebherr-Electronics and Drives in Germany.

Born in Osaka, Japan, Imakoji spent his youth in Salzburg, Austria.

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In 2019, Steitz was named president and CEO of surface protection 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 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, and he was chief operating officer of Albemarle Corp., one of NewMarket’s subsidiaries, for five years.

In November 2024, Tredegar completed the sale of its flexible packaging films business to Oben Group and expected to realize after-tax, cash-free and debt-free proceeds of $85 million.

Tredegar’s net sales in the first quarter of 2025 increased 17% over the same quarter in 2024. The company has about 1,500 employees in the United States and Asia.

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

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