After nearly 16 years of wearing two hats – CEO and chairman of the board – Latham Pool Products’ Mark Laven will focus on the latter role.
As such, the Latham, N.Y.-based manufacturer has promoted from within, naming former CFO Scott Rajeski into the president/CEO position.
“I’m extremely excited to be taking over as president and CEO of Latham Pool Products from Mark Laven,” Rajeski said. “I’ve worked with Mark for five-plus years now, and I’ve had an opportunity to learn a lot about the business and about the industry from Mark.”
Laven, whose family founded Latham, said this has been underway for a while. He remains full-time with the company, but will step away from the day-to-day operations and focus on long-term strategy.
“This is a traditional succession-planning event,” he said. “… In this particular situation, my health is good. I’m not an old guy, but we wanted to make sure that we could have a regular transition. ... I think the company and our customers win when a transition like this takes place.”
Laven headed the company for a time in the late 1980s, before his family sold it. He and a few investors purchased Latham back from the conglomerate Cookson in late 2001, when he took over as president/CEO and chairman of the board. In that time, and through a few ownership changes, Laven shepherded the firm through several strategic acquisitions that caused it to grow from a vinyl-liner pool manufacturer to a player in several product categories, including covers and fiberglass pools. Acquired brands include Viking, Trilogy, and Blue Hawaiian fiberglass pools; several package-pool names, including Pacific Pools, Fort Wayne Pools, Kafko Pool Products, Performance Pool Products, Premier, Oasis, Plastimayd and VynAll pool liners; CoverLogix manual safety covers; and Coverstar and Pool Cover Specialists automatic safety covers.
“It’s a very different company today than when I bought it from in 2001,” Laven said.
Rajeski’s promotion comes after five years in the CFO spot. He joined Latham in 2012, with a background serving in executive leadership positions in GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Momentive Performance Materials and General Electric. He has held leadership roles in community-based organizations, most recently as chairman of the Southern Saratoga Chamber of Commerce. He earned a Bachelors degree in math and business economics from Potsdam State University and a Masters of Business Administration from Clarkson University.
“Scott has a great background,” Laven said. “He was our CFO, so he understands all about the business’ performance. He’s kind of the gatekeeper for our records and metrics of how the company’s performing, he understands where there are opportunities for further improvement, and he has directed a variety of internal functions and back office functions... So he’s largely been running a good portion of the business on a day to day basis for some time.”
While relatively new to the pool industry, Rajeski’s connection runs deceptively deep. “I did not grow up in the industry, but I have been a pool owner my entire life,” he said.
The company plans to continue on its current track, Rajeski said, largely focusing on the covers and fiberglass pools categories.
“I think the thing that will really be different, if you look at the dynamics of the industry now, is the acceptance of fiberglass pools and the auto cover segment," he said. "We’re very well positioned in both those categories. We think we’re going to see a lot more growth in both those segments, which will really allow us to hopefully grow faster than the overall industry...”
To fill the spot left by Rajeski, Latham has hired a new CFO. John Kempf, who joins the company in early November, hails from EYP Architecture & Engineering in Albany, N.Y. There, he served as CFO and corporate secretary for eight years, and a director since 2016. Like Rajeski, he has worked for G.E. He holds a BAA in finance from University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He will manage strategic and operational management of the firm’s annual operating plan, and drive business performance and financial process improvement efforts.
Latham recently opened a new fiberglass pool manufacturing facility in DeWitt, Iowa, responding to increased demand in the Midwest.
Since 2015, the principle owner of Latham Pool Products has been Chicago-based private equity firm Wynnchurch Capital.
