Chief Operating Officer / Chief Executive Officer

Requirements

• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in manufacturing, industrial equipment, or a closely adjacent industry
• Direct, hands-on experience scaling a manufacturing business — ideally from a revenue range of $5M–$20M toward $50M or beyond
• Proven COO, President, or GM background with full P&L ownership and demonstrated EBITDA improvement
• Experience leading or overseeing a production/manufacturing floor, including capacity planning, workforce management, and quality systems
• Track record of building and executing a B2B sales strategy, not merely managing an inherited sales function
• Experience implementing or optimizing ERP/MRP systems in a production environment
• Background in industrial machinery, capital equipment, plastics, flexible packaging, or related sectors strongly preferred
• Revenue Architecture — the ability to build scalable sales infrastructure (people, process, CRM, pipeline discipline) that decouples revenue growth from founder dependency
• Operational Leverage — demonstrated ability to scale throughput without proportional cost increases; the instinct to automate and systematize functions before they break under volume
• Customer-Centricity — deep knowledge of the target customer (plastic film converters, flexible packaging OEMs) and the ability to translate that into product positioning, service design, and retention
• Financial Acumen — fluency in EBITDA drivers, gross margin analysis, working capital management, and cost structure optimization in a manufacturing environment
• Talent Builder — a track record of recruiting operators above their current size and developing internal successors; the ability to build a leadership team that scales with the company
• Execution Discipline — a cadenced, data-driven operating style with clear weekly/monthly rhythms, OKR or KPI frameworks, and a bias for accountability over activity
• Change Management — demonstrated success leading organizations through facility transitions, technology implementations, and cultural transformation without disrupting performance
• Strategic Vision — the ability to articulate a credible path from current state to $50M, including market expansion, product strategy, partnerships, and capital investment priorities

Nice to have:

• Has directly managed a manufacturing plant — knows the floor as well as the boardroom
• Has lived through an ERP/MRP implementation and knows what it takes to drive adoption across a skeptical workforce
• Has built or restructured a B2B sales team, established pipeline discipline, and personally opened key accounts
• Has managed through a facility move, expansion, or greenfield build-out
• Brings a network of talent — knows who to call for the next 10 hires across operations, sales, and engineering
• Is comfortable with the ambiguity and resource constraints of a closely held company and energized by the ownership mentality that comes with it
• Ideally has industry proximity: experience at a plastic bag machine manufacturer, blown film extruder, converting equipment company, or flexible packaging operation is a significant advantage

Benefits

• A defined, contractual path to the CEO chair
• Full P&L authority and operational autonomy from day one
• A defensible market position as the only fully domestic plastic bag machine manufacturer in the U.S.
• Recent investments in MRP/ERP, brand, project management software, and communications
• A new, purpose-built manufacturing facility in Copiague, NY — the incoming COO will have significant input on its operational design
• A founder committed to transitioning operating authority to the right leader and supporting the company's next chapter of growth
• A compensation package structured to make the executive’s total compensation package grow proportionate to the growth of the company

Important Details

• Contract: The incoming COO will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer with full accountability for the enterprise after 18 months of demonstrated leadership excellence
• Planned relocation: to a newly constructed, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Copiague, New York which is on track for Q1, 2027

About the Company

This company is America's only fully domestic manufacturer of plastic bag machines, headquartered in Hempstead, New York. The company designs, engineers, and produces industrial machinery for the flexible packaging industry — a sector with deep ties to food, retail, medical, and consumer goods supply chains across North America, Central America, South America, the Caribbean and Asia. Acquired by The Oakdale Company in 2025, the company is now entering a deliberate growth phase supported by meaningful operational investments. The target is to grow this company from sub $10M in current annual revenue to $25M+.