Berlin Packaging Names William J. Hayes Chief Executive Officer And President

Berlin Packaging today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed William J. Hayes as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President and a member of the Board of Directors, effective no later than July 13, 2020.  Hayes is currently CEO and President of BrandSafway.

Michael Grebe, Executive Chairman of Berlin Packaging, stated: “On behalf of the Board and our sponsors, I am extremely proud to welcome Bill Hayes to Berlin Packaging.  We are excited to have someone of Bill’s calibre and experience join Berlin Packaging at such an important time in our history.”

Grebe stated further: “Bill is a true leader with a proven track record of strong execution and extraordinary results.  As a CEO, he currently leads a global, highly distributed, private equity-sponsored business with annual revenues of $5 billion. Bill is well-known to be a servant leader and brings the same customer focus to Berlin Packaging that has made us so successful as the world’s leading hybrid packaging supplier.  We have a fantastic team here at Berlin Packaging that has come to be known for delivering customer and employee thrill.  Bill is a great addition to our team, with the same core values, and will add a renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategies and further capitalize on the considerable global market opportunities ahead.”

Hayes said, “It’s truly a privilege to have been given the opportunity to lead Berlin Packaging, a clear market leader with a great team, a proud and successful past, and a very bright future having numerous growth opportunities globally.  I’m looking forward to working with Mike, the leadership team and all the Berlin employees to deliver even more value to our customers and our investors.  I’m also looking forward to working with the Board and our world-class sponsors.  We’re going to make history in this very strong and important industry.”

Bill’s experience is marked by growing companies and transforming industries. Bill grew Safway from a nearly $1 billion North American business in 2012 to a $5 billion global industrial services business in 2020, with 38,000 employees across 340 locations in 30 countries, following a transformational combination with Brand.  Prior to BrandSafway, Bill was President of Honeywell Safety Products, where he drove growth from $600 million in 2008 to $2 billion in 2012, creating the largest Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) player at that time.  Bill’s earlier career experience includes leadership roles at Nitto Denko, Brady, and Johnson & Johnson.

Bill, a Chicago native who graduated from Northern Illinois University (BA) and Northwestern University/Kellogg (MBA), currently lives in Lake Forest, IL and will be based out of Berlin Packaging’s corporate headquarters in Chicago.

Berlin Packaging is a portfolio company of Oak Hill Capital Partners (Oak Hill) and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments).

About Berlin Packaging

Berlin Packaging is the only global Hybrid Packaging Supplier® of glass, plastic, and metal containers and closures. The company supplies packaging solutions for large and small customers across a broad range of products, along with package design, financing, consulting, warehousing, and logistics services for customers across all industries. Berlin Packaging brings together the best of manufacturing, distribution, and income-adding service providers. Its mission is to increase the net income of its customers through packaging products and services.

See BerlinPackaging.com for more information.

About Oak Hill

Oak Hill is a private equity firm managing funds with approximately $15 billion of initial capital commitments and co-investments since inception. Over the past 33 years, Oak Hill and its predecessors have invested in over 90 private equity transactions across broad segments of the U.S. and global economies. Oak Hill applies an industry-focused, theme-based approach to investing in the following sectors: Consumer, Retail & Distribution; Industrials; Media & Communications; and Services. Oak Hill works actively in partnership with management to implement strategic and operational initiatives to create franchise value. For more information, please visit: www.oakhill.com.

About CPP Investments

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments™) is a professional investment management organization that invests the funds not needed by the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) to pay current benefits in the best interests of 20 million contributors and beneficiaries. In order to build diversified portfolios of assets, investments in public equities, private equities, real estate, infrastructure and fixed income instruments are made by CPP Investments. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, New York City, San Francisco, São Paulo and Sydney, CPP Investments is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan and at arm’s length from governments. At December 31, 2019, the CPP Fund totalled C$420.4 billion.