American Baler president to retire, Avis says

The Recycling and Waste Equipment Division of Avis Industrial Corp., Upland, Indiana, has announced the retirement of Dave Kowaleski, president and general manager of American Baler Co., effective this June.

“While it’s bittersweet to have Dave move on to a very well-deserved retirement, I am excited to have the team in place across our operating locations to ensure our customers benefit from the breadth of solutions that we have to offer and our ability to expand our capacity for reduced cycle times,” says DJ VanDeusen, president of Harris and Avis’ Recycling and Waste Equipment Division.

The announcement of Kowaleski’s retirement comes as Avis Corp. continues the integration of Harris, International Baler and American Baler announced earlier this year.

Kowaleski spent his entire 47-year career at American Baler.

Concurrent with Kowaleski’s retirement, the Recycling and Waste Equipment Division has announced several other personnel changes:

• Nate Kuhl is named general manager of American Baler and site leader of the company’s Bellevue, Ohio, operations. Kuhl previously served as a plant manager with American Baler and has been with the organization for 15 years.
• Roger Griffin, president and general manager of International Baler Corp. (IBC), is named to an expanded leadership role as site leader at the company’s Baxley, Georgia, operations while continuing in his leadership role for IBC.
• Jerry Lott has been named site leader of Harris’ Cordele, Georgia, operations where he has served as plant manager. Lott has been with the organization for four years.
• Mary Johnson is named director of inside sales and order administration. She previously served as general manager of Harris’ Baxley, Georgia, operations and has been with the organization for 30 years.

All these individuals will report directly to VanDeusen and will support Mark Murphy, vice president of manufacturing and supply chain, and Gordon Hill, vice president of commercial operations, as they identify opportunities to leverage best practices and maximize capacity across the four operating locations. Murphy and Hill were appointed to their current positions earlier this spring.

The three companies comprising Avis’ Recycling and Waste Equipment Division have been in business for 289 years combined, offer recycling and waste compaction solutions, operate four manufacturing locations and support what Avis says is the largest global installed base of balers for recycling. The combined product offering of the division includes single-ram, horizontal, two-ram, ferrous and specialty balers, scrap metal and automobile shear/baler/loggers, heavy-duty shredders and high-volume waste and scrap compactors.