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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Robinson took over in 2024 as the head of Framatome, the Lynchburg-based North American subsidiary of the French nuclear equipment, services and fuel producer.

During more than three decades of experience in the nuclear industry, Robinson has held a series of executive positions. Previously, he was senior vice president and chief nuclear officer of Structural Integrity Associates, a North Carolina company providing engineering services for the energy and process industries. Before that, he had been an executive for BWX Technologies in Lynchburg and worked for about 25 years for Framatome and its predecessor, Areva.

In July, Framatome completed a $49.4 million expansion at its Mill Ridge Road facility in Lynchburg, where it will focus on small modular reactors, or SMRs. Framatome has 2,480 employees in North America, with more than 1,500 of those working in Virginia.

ADVICE FOR NEW COLLEGE GRADS: Be assertive, but be patient with your career trajectory. The path to leadership is typically not linear.

WHAT I DO FOR FUN: Biking, swimming, golf, water skiing, snow skiing and pickleball

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Fairbanks became Trex’s president and CEO after the retirement of James Cline in 2020. Previously, he had been the publicly traded composite decking and railing manufacturer’s executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Trex products are sold through more than 6,700 retail outlets across six continents. Over the next five years, Trex hopes to double its market share of the $3.3 billion railing market, moving from 6% to 12%.

As of year-end 2024, the company had 1,838 employees and reported $1.2 billion in revenue, an increase of 5% from the previous year. One of the largest recyclers of PE plastic film in North America, Trex upcycles more than 320 million pounds of recycled plastic waste annually in its manufacturing process.

Before joining Trex, Fairbanks held several senior finance roles at Ford Motor. He received a degree in accounting from the University of Dayton and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.

Fairbanks sits on the Frederick County Economic Development Authority’s board and the Governor’s Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates.

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