Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> October 20, 2003

Ross Centanni – Gardner Denver Inc (gdi)

ROSS CENTANNI was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gardner Denver, Inc., on November 3, 1998. He continues to serve as President and Chief Executive Officer of the company as well, a position he has held since the company's spinoff from Cooper Industries, Inc., in 1994. Prior to the spinoff, he served as Vice President and General Manager of the company's predecessor, the Gardner Denver Industrial Machinery Division of Cooper Industries and, prior to that, as Director of Marketing for the Division. Mr. Centanni joined Cooper Industries in Houston, Texas, in February 1980 as Director of their Corporate Planning and Development Group. Prior to Cooper, he spent two years with Occidental Petroleum in Houston, Texas, and seven years with The B.F. Goodrich Company in Akron, Ohio. He serves on the Boards of Directors for Denman Services, Inc., of Quincy, Illinois, Esterline Technologies of Bellevue, Washington, and the Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association, Houston, Texas. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the International Compressed Air and Allied Machinery Committee. Mr. Centanni was selected as a finalist in Ernst & Young's 1998 Entrepreneur of the Year Program. Also in 1998, Forbes magazine named Gardner Denver 32nd among the 200 Best Small Companies in America. He received a BS degree in Industrial Technology in 1967 and an MBA degree in 1971, both from Louisiana State University. Profile
TWST: Would you begin with a short capsule summary of Gardner Denver?

Mr. Centanni: Gardner Denver is a small-cap industrial machinery

manufacturer. We have two segments to our business. The