Koppers Loadman to retire; Sullivan named to succeed

Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor
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Tom Loadman, left, and James Sullivan.

Thomas D. Loadman, senior vice president, Railroad Products and Services (RPS) at Koppers Holdings Inc., will retire Dec. 31, 2018, following 39 years at the company.

The company says that as of May 1, 2018, the RPS segment will be led by James A. Sullivan, senior vice president, Global Carbon Materials and Chemicals (CMC). Sullivan will also retain his previous responsibilities. Loadman will take on an advisory role to assist with the transition and other strategic projects aimed at identifying potential growth opportunities for Koppers for the remainder of 2018.

Loadman began his career with Koppers in 1979 and held various management positions with the company. In 1985, he was promoted to the role of plant manager at the Muncy, Penn., facility and several years later, appointed railroad plant operations manager. Subsequently, he was named vice president and general manager of RPS in 1995 and elected senior vice president, RPS in 2015.

Commenting on Loadman’s career, Koppers President and CEO Leroy M. Ball said, “Tom’s contributions to Koppers during his 39-year tenure have been significant, and he has much to be proud of as he prepares to retire after a long and distinguished career. His expertise in the rail industry has been invaluable to me, especially since I stepped into the CEO role in 2015. We will all miss Tom’s leadership, but I feel good knowing that he is leaving behind a proud legacy of leaders that have benefited from his care and guidance.”

Ball continued, “While it is difficult to have someone of Tom’s caliber leave the company, it provides an opportunity to further integrate the RPS and CMC businesses and to take advantage of their many natural synergies. There is no better person at Koppers than Jim Sullivan to lead that integration, as he has been the chief architect of the successful turnaround of our CMC segment over the last four years. Moreover, he has demonstrated the ability to motivate his team around a common purpose during even the most challenging times.”

Sullivan joined Koppers in 2013 as vice president of business development, and in 2014, assumed responsibility of the global CMC business segment which has significantly transformed under his leadership.

For the remainder of 2018, Koppers plans to evaluate whether this organizational realignment will change the way that financial performance is aggregated, and assess the impact it may have on operational decision making. If warranted, the company will report the results of any new business segments according to the applicable accounting standards and reporting requirements.

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