Welch's Board Names Successor
CONCORD, Mass., October 26, 2006
Welch's Board of Directors today named David J. Lukiewski, 53, to succeed Daniel P. Dillon as the company's President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Lukiewski also succeeds Dillon as one of the two Welch's executives on the 10-member Welch's board. Trey Wright, Senior Vice President, Finance, and Chief Financial Officer, is the other.
Lukiewski joined Welch's in 1995 as Vice President of Sales, a position he held until 2000 when he was named Senior Vice President of Sales. In 2003 he was appointed Senior Vice President, Global Sales & Marketing, the position he held before being named President and CEO. Lukiewski is the 13th President of Welch's, the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of Concord and Niagara grape-based products founded by Dr. Thomas B. Welch in 1869.
During his tenure as Senior Vice President, Lukiewski led Welch's corporate domestic sales and marketing and international organizations with responsibility for all customer and consumer activities. He helped to accelerate international market roll-outs in China, Mexico and the United Kingdom while introducing a number of new products and successfully refocusing the company's marketing efforts on its core business – purple grape juice made from Concord grapes. Those efforts and others have led to a 40% increase in sales volume since Lukiewski joined the company in 1995.
Prior to joining Welch's, Lukiewski held positions of increasing responsibility at Reckitt & Colman, a manufacturer and marketer of a variety of consumer products, and Johnson & Johnson, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies.
He graduated from the University of Scranton (Pa.) with a B.A. degree and received his M.B.A. from the Kotz Graduate School of Management, now affiliated with St. Thomas University in St. Paul., Minn. He is a native of Scranton, Pa., and currently resides in Westford, Mass., with his wife Gail. He has two grown children.
Dillon, 61, announced his retirement earlier this month at the company's Town Hall Forum before approximately 250 employees. Dillon joined Welch's in 1981 and became President and CEO in 1995. During his 25+ years with Welch's, Dillon was responsible for establishing the company's new products program, key to Welch's business turnaround, growing the company from a declining $200 million business in 1981 to $600 million in fiscal year 2006. He re-energized the Welch's brand by broadening the product line, increasing advertising support and successfully penetrating new channels of distribution. Today, Welch's is considered by many to be the most successful agricultural cooperative in the United States.
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