Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> October 20, 2003
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
Mr. Centanni: Gardner Denver is a small-cap industrial machinery
manufacturer. We have two segments to our business. The
