20.03.2014

Essex confirms new CEO

Essex Rental has confirmed the promotion of its chief operating officer Nick Matthews to chief executive, replacing Ron Schad who resigned last November. His appointment was effective last Thursday - see: Schad to leave Essex

Mathews joined Essex around nine months ago, prior to that he was vice president and group executive for Railcar Operations at GATX railcar leasing, where he was responsible for North American railcar maintenance operations, engineering, railcar service centres, field service activities and contract shop operations.

Before GATX he held a variety of operational roles at FreightCar America and Trinity Industries.
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Nick Mathews

Since joining Essex he has been responsible for a number of strategic initiatives including:

-Spearheading the decision to sell surplus equipment through the sealed bid auction sale process.
-Refining the company’s go-to-market strategy relating to its parts and service segment.
-Designing operational improvements focused on increasing utilization.
-Leading an initiative aimed at improving the company’s quality.
-Developing a more customer-centric service-oriented culture.

Chairman Laurence Levy said: “After an extensive search, we are confident that Nick is the right individual to lead the company given his proven experience at Essex and his keen focus on driving return on invested capital that he gained from his prior executive positions.”

“I am focused on operational excellence and financial discipline in order to reposition the company for success," added Mathews. "I am committed to driving success for the company by diversifying our products and services, repositioning the fleet by divesting underutilized rental assets and creating a differentiated value proposition for our customers.”