Walter R. Lovejoy, Chairman

The founder of Lovejoy Industries, Walter's career encompasses nearly half a century of business experience. By age 26, he was President and CEO of a plastic injection mold tooling company with $100 million in annual sales.

As Senior Vice President for Beatrice Companies, Inc., he assumed total responsibility for its Industrial Division. With annual sales of $1 billion, the division encompassed 36 separate companies serving a variety of domestic and international markets. Lovejoy Industries continues to benefit from the strategic planning process that Walter developed to enable this diverse corporate group to grow.

In 1982, he decided to leave the corporate race. He purchased two operating companies from Beatrice. This was the start of Lovejoy Industries.

Since then he has engineered Lovejoy's acquisition and divestiture of a dozen operating companies, with spectacular results.