Steitz has been on the Tredegar board of directors since 2017. He was CEO of Addivant Corp., a global supplier of polymer additives, from March 2015 until January 2019.
He previously worked in executive roles for chemicals and materials manufacturers such as PQ Corp. and Avantor Performance Materials, and he worked for 20 years in various roles for Mallinckrodt Inc., a maker of specialty pharmaceuticals and imaging agents.
Steitz also worked from 2007 to 2012 as executive vice president and chief operating officer for Albemarle Corp., a specialty chemicals company that was formerly based in Richmond before moving its headquarters to Baton Rouge, La., in 2008. He was president and chief operating officer of Albemarle from March 2012 through August 2012.
Gottwald, 64, will continue to serve as a member of Tredegar’s board and its executive committee, the company said.
The transition is expected to become effective later this month.
Gottwald became Tredegar’s president and CEO in 1989 when the company was created as a spinoff from the additives company Ethyl Corp., now called NewMarket Corp. He served his first stint as CEO until 2001.
Gottwald stepped back into the CEO role for two other stretches — from 2006 to 2010 and then again in 2015 when the company’s then-president and CEO, Nancy aylor, abruptly resigned.
