Rubber News looking for Exec of Year nominations

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio—Who will be this year's Cedric Glasper?

The CEO of Mechanical Rubber Co. Inc. was the 2021 Rubber News Rubber Industry Executive of the Year. And it's time to look for his successor.

Glasper said one of his traits as a leader was that he also was quick to embrace the uncomfortable for the sake of personal and professional growth.

"There are two types of change," Glasper said. "Change that happens to you and change that you make happen. Moving to different neighborhoods all my life, you have to adapt and communicate with all types of people. This really helped me in my professional life."

Along those lines, Rubber News is embracing some change of our own with this year's nominating process. We have been naming an Executive of the Year every year since 1989, and in the past, only lead executives of a North American manufacturer of finished rubber goods were eligible to be nominated.

This year, that will no longer be true, as the editorial staff of the publication has decided to widen the eligibility criteria for the honor.

Over the last several years, we have received a number of nominations for worthy leaders, but couldn't consider them because they didn't work for a rubber product manufacturer. Some were from suppliers, others from distributors, organizations or associations serving the rubber and tire industry.

We've typically explained to those who submitted the nominations that we were grateful that they wanted to participate in the process, but their candidates didn't meet the eligibility criteria.

After listening to those who lobbied that the criteria was too limiting, we took a closer look at our process, and determined that after more than three decades, it was time to open up the eligibility and welcome a wider pool of potential nominees in the tire and rubber industry.

The tweaks we've made mirror some of the eligibility requirements we use for our Best Places To Work in the rubber industry program.

We're still looking for the lead executive of a North American-based company, or of a major rubber-related unit of a larger corporation on the continent. But now, we aren't limiting nominees to just makers of end rubber goods.

Like the BPTW process, eligibility now will expand to those who lead suppliers or service providers in the rubber industry. Besides end rubber goods makers, that now includes: suppliers of materials, chemicals and fillers used in rubber manufacturing; custom mixers; machinery and equipment makers; mold and tooling makers; testing firms; suppliers of testing machinery and lab equipment; rubber recycling firms; distributor/fabricators of finished rubber goods to end users; distributors of materials, equipment or services; and associations or organizations serving the rubber sector.

So put your thinking caps on and decide who has the right traits to win this year. The nominating process itself remains simple, and here are the specifics.

Nominations can be made online at rubbernews.com/execofyear. We need the candidate's name, where he or she works, their job title and why the person deserves the honor. Go into some detail here. The more information we have on a nominee the easier it is to determine if the candidate should be considered. Also include your name and contact information in case we need to know more.

If you have questions, email Rubber News Managing Editor Erin Pustay Beaven at [email protected].

Deadline for nominations is Oct. 25. The Rubber News editorial staff determines the winner, who will be announced in our Nov. 28 issue.