Foam Maker FXI Names Cowles President, CEO

June 20, 2011  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Executive Changes on June 21, 2011

Media, Pa.-based foam manufacturer FXI has named John Cowles president, CEO and board member.

He succeeds Jack Johnson, who is retiring after six years but will remain on FXI's board as non-executive chairman.
 
Most recently, Cowles was CEO of Touchstone Wireless, where he led the company to become a fast growing organization with strong profitability through supply chain transformation and strong customer focus. Prior to his time at Touchstone, he was president of George Weston Bakeries, where he transformed the supply chain, accelerated innovation and improved communication leveraging icon brands of Arnold Natural and Thomas. Cowles also served as executive vice president and general manager for Kraft Foods where he ran the Beverage, Cookies, Confections and Condiments businesses; and worked for nine years at Campbell Soup Co. where he led organizations in Asia Pacific and the U.S. Cowles began his career at Booz, Allen & Hamilton.
 
Cowles received an MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in industrial engineering from Cornell University.

"On behalf of the board, I would like to welcome John to FXI," said Jack Johnson, outgoing FXI president & CEO. "John is a proven leader who brings to FXI an ideal combination of skills and experience. We are confident that FXI will greatly benefit from his supply chain, innovation and general industry experience as we continue to focus on driving enterprise value through growth and new business development."
 
"FXI is an established leader in the polyurethane foam manufacturing industry, and I am very pleased to be joining the company," Cowles said. "I look forward to leading FXI through its next phase of growth and driving its strategic vision of being a market-focused provider of polyurethane foam-based solutions, healthcare foams and specialty comfort products.  I am extremely excited by this opportunity and look forward to working with the entire FXI team to realize the enormous potential that exists at FXI."