SPEAKERS - [Back to Main Speakers List]
Petter M. Etholm, President & CEO, Thomas Equipment and Chairman, President & CEO, Osiris Corporation
(parent company of Thomas Equipment):
"Thomas Equipment: Compete Globally, Focus Locally to Revive & Thrive"
Thomas Equipment is a long established brand in the skid steer market with 65 years of service to industry, yet encountered difficulty under previous management. Petter Etholm, appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Equipment, Inc. in 2007, will discuss how his company is emerging from previous financial trouble and adverse business developments. Thomas, with its newly-renamed parent company, Osiris Corporation, at which Etholm is also President and CEO, has taken systematic steps to reclaim its place in the thriving skid steer loader market. The company markets its products in North America, Europe, Australia and elsewhere. Etholm has instituted a unifying global marketing strategy with local market initiatives with local focus in each market sector.
On the manufacturing side, engineering and quality control were the primary focus as Etholm let Thomas to consolidate manufacturing into a strong new alliance with a major China-based subsidiary of a global company, Singapore Technologies Engineering (STE), for the manufacture of Thomas skid steer products. Dynamically and innovatively he spearheaded a relationship that also opens Asia to Thomas sales through the relationship opened the China market as the STE unit, Guizhou Jonyang Kinetics (GJK), now represents Thomas products in its markets, particularly China. Thomas will oversee all production, engineering and quality control with its team in Canada on site in China.
Socially responsible, Thomas has a 65-year history of operation in North America. Etholm has arranged for the company’s manufacturing facility in New Brunswick, Canada, to continue to provide manufacturing support for Thomas, as well as gain new business so the plant employees will retain their jobs and the community in the small New Brunswick town of Centreville will not be adversely affected by the manufacturing redirection.
About Petter M. Etholm:
Petter M. Etholm, 52, has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Osiris Corporation and President and CEO of its Thomas Equipment Inc. subsidiary since October 2007, when he was also appointed to the Board of Directors of both companies. Osiris is a holding company and Thomas is an international manufacturer and marketer of skid steer loaders.
Etholm is leading a turnaround of Thomas Equipment, founded 65 years ago, to restore the company and build continued success for the Thomas brand through strategic global initiatives.
Etholm is an experienced entrepreneur with 20+ years in consumer retailing and franchising businesses. From 2001 through 2006, he was President of Cardsmart Retail Corporation, which he led to become America’s fastest growing card and gift retail store franchise, also with a network of company-owned stores. From 1995 through 2000, Etholm served as a principal of Norwegian Wood, Inc.
He was Executive Vice President of Nutri/System where he managed 250 corporate and 1000 franchise stores ($500 million in system wide sales) as well as owning and operating his own chain of 20 stores with annual turnover in excess of $10 million. Additionally, he developed over 40 stores internationally in a 2-year period.
A member of the Worlds President’s Organization, Etholm received an undergraduate degree from The Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration and a Masters of Business Administration in International Management from Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management.