Kristen Manos Named President, Wilsonart International

TEMPLE, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wilsonart International and Illinois Tool Works (ITW) announce that Kristen Manos will become the next President of Wilsonart.

“Kris brings a rich background and deep experience to our company”

Ms. Manos brings significant experience to her new role. She was previously Executive Vice President and President of Herman Miller North American Office Environments where she ran a $1.5B profit and loss organization which also included the Geiger subsidiary. Previous experience at Herman Miller was in marketing and market development where she established a branding strategy and a vertical selling strategy in education and healthcare. She also led an initiative to reinvigorate the design focus within the company.

"We are thrilled to welcome Kris into our organization," says Jane Warner, ITW Executive Vice President. "She brings significant knowledge, industry relationships and key strategic perspective from her broad range of experience. She will be able to ‘hit the ground running’ and build on Wilsonart’s already strong foundation."

"Kris brings a rich background and deep experience to our company," says Bill DiGaetano, outgoing President of Wilsonart. "In her roles with two major office furniture manufacturers – Herman Miller and Haworth – she has not only been a customer of Wilsonart, but has been a peer in our industry. She understands the importance of manufacturing high quality product, delivering consistently on time and depending on great relationships with channel partners."

Prior to her Herman Miller experience, she was Vice President of Global Marketing at Haworth, Inc., a Holland, MI-based furniture company. She also led their Product Development team, Customer Satisfaction unit and developed the first strategic plan for the company.

Ms. Manos began her career at Navistar in manufacturing where she had assignments as a first line supervisor in the engine plant, a manufacturing engineer and a financial analyst in materials management. She ultimately became Manager of Strategic Business Development and OEM Marketing.

"I am thrilled to have the opportunity to lead Wilsonart," says Ms. Manos. "This company transformed the laminate industry over the past 56 years, through reliability and service excellence, quality products and beautiful designs. That's a great legacy and a great foundation for the future."

Ms. Manos graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and completed a Masters in Public and Private Management at Yale. She is on the board of KeyCorp, Holland Hospital and International Relief and Development. She is married and has two sons. She and her husband will be moving to the Central Texas area.

Ms. Manos replaces DiGaetano, who announced his retirement late last year. DiGaetano has been President of Wilsonart since 2005 and is a 33-year veteran of the company.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50166985&lang=en