LAKE OSWEGO, Ore., Oct. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Greenbrier
Companies, Inc. (NYSE:GBX) announced organizational changes today
in anticipation of the previously disclosed retirement of
James T. Sharp, Executive Vice
President and President of Greenbrier Leasing Corporation (GLC), at
the end of December. Sharp's duties will be assumed by
Mark J. Rittenbaum, Executive Vice
President, Commercial & Leasing.
Sharp will continue in an advisory role through 2016 and beyond,
assisting with transition and special projects. The
organizational changes will further integrate Greenbrier's Leasing
and Management Services businesses with its Commercial activities,
building on the substantial growth and success of the integrated
leasing business developed during Sharp's 20-year tenure at
Greenbrier. Greenbrier continues to serve global markets for
its products and services, while maintaining the high-quality
experience expected by Greenbrier's customers.
Rittenbaum will have oversight responsibilities for all
Commercial and Leasing activities in North America and Latin America, with particular emphasis on new
railcar sales, leasing and enhancement of customer service design.
As announced previously, Jim Cowan,
President of Greenbrier International, will oversee Commercial
activities in all railcar markets outside the Americas, while
continuing as CEO of GBW Railcar Services, LLC, Greenbrier's
railcar repair and refurbishment joint venture with Watco
Companies, LLC. Alejandro Centurion continues as President of
Greenbrier's Global Manufacturing Operations (GMO). Centurion
is credited with implementing Greenbrier's global manufacturing and
engineering system for new railcar manufacturing. Currently,
GMO's global output accounts for approximately 75% of Greenbrier's
annual worldwide revenue.
GLC will continue to align its leasing and management services
businesses to emphasize three primary areas of business activity:
Lease Underwriting, Lease Syndication and Asset Management Services
(GMS). These areas will be led by three Greenbrier veterans
who each now report to Rittenbaum: Larry
Stanley, Senior Vice President, GLC Finance, will lead Lease
Underwriting; Brian Conn, Managing
Director, Structured Financial Products, will lead Lease
Syndication; and Dan Weiler, will
serve as Senior Vice President Asset Management, leading GMS.
Greenbrier's Commercial organization includes Greenbrier's field
sales operations and commercial administration headed by
Brian Comstock, Senior Vice
President, General Manager Commercial, Americas Region and
Tom Jackson, Vice President,
Marketing.
William A. Furman, Chairman and
CEO, said, "Greenbrier is becoming more global, leveraging our
scale, and moving closer to our customers. We have a focused
'go to market strategy' that serves our integrated business model
and reflects our expanded worldwide activities. Thanks to the
talents and vision of Jim Sharp, we
have grown a small railcar leasing company into a very successful
asset-light leasing and asset management business that manages over
268,000 railcars and originates almost $1
billion of railcar leases annually. Most of this
product is syndicated and sold to institutional partners with
underlying assets managed by Greenbrier over the life of the
equipment. I greatly appreciate Jim's 20 years of service to
Greenbrier."
Rittenbaum said, "We have a deep pool of talented people and
highly capable teams in place within our Leasing, Management
Services and Commercial organizations. I know that the
current high levels of integration and coordinated effort will only
grow as we continue to collaborate within this new organizational
structure. My goal is to build on the platforms created by
Jim and the GLC team, along with our Commercial organization"
About Greenbrier
Greenbrier (www.gbrx.com),
headquartered in Lake Oswego,
Oregon, is a leading international supplier of equipment and
services to the freight rail transportation markets. Greenbrier
designs, builds and markets freight railcars in North America and Europe, we build freight railcars and rail
castings in Brazil through a
strategic partnership, and build and market marine barges in
North America. Recently, through
our European manufacturing operations, we also began delivery of
US-designed tank cars to Saudi
Arabia. In October 2016, we
entered into an agreement with Astra Rail Management GmbH to form a
new company, Greenbrier-Astra Rail, which will create an
end-to-end, Europe-based freight
railcar manufacturing, engineering and repair business. We
expect this combination will be completed during 2017. We are
a leading provider of wheel services, parts, leasing and other
services to the railroad and related transportation industries in
North America and a provider of
freight railcar repair, refurbishment and retrofitting services in
North America through a joint
venture partnership with Watco Companies, LLC. Through other joint
ventures we produce rail castings, tank heads and other railcar
components. Greenbrier owns a lease fleet of over 9,000 railcars
and performs management services for over 268,000
railcars.
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SOURCE The Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (GBX)