Locations
Grace Constr. Co., Inc.
Key Contacts
Owners, Principals & Senior Executives
Fred Festa's Bio
Fred Festa is the eighth chief executive to lead the company since its founding in 1854. He joined Grace as President and Chief Operating Officer in November 2003, became Chief Executive Officer in June 2005, and was elected Chairman of the Board in January 2008.
Through Fred's leadership, Grace has enhanced its standing as a premier global specialty chemicals and materials company with strong franchises in large global markets. Fred has led the transformation of Grace into a fully-integrated global operating company. During his tenure, revenue increased 65 percent and net sales increased from $1.8 billion in 2003 to $3.1 billion in 2015. Adjusted EBITDA expanded from $252 million to $750 million, while Adjusted Free Cash Flow rose from $53 million to $440 million.
In 2015-16, Fred led the separation of Grace into two independent public companies that are expected to benefit from improved strategic focus, simplified operating structures, and more efficient capital allocation. The separation was completed through a tax-free spin-off of Grace's Construction Products segment and Darex Packaging Technologies business into a new company, GCP Applied Technologies Inc. (NYSE: GCP). Grace continues to operate the Catalysts Technologies and Materials Technologies business segments (excluding Darex).
Grace has completed 23 acquisitions and seven divestitures under Fred's leadership. The company's portfolio was rebalanced, expanding the breadth of the catalysts business and increasing polypropylene catalysts revenue more than $200 million in less than five years. The silica-related Materials Technologies segment was solidified and entered into pharmaceutical applications. Prior to the 2016 separation, the Construction Products unit expanded through new technologies and bolt-on acquisitions. Grace expanded its geographic platform, increasing emerging region sales from 21 percent to over 38 percent of total sales.
With the Board of Directors, Fred guided the company through the longest and one of the most complex and contested Chapter 11 reorganizations in history, ending on February 3, 2014. Under the reorganization, all pending and future asbestos-related claims are channeled to independent trusts and all non-asbestos creditors were paid in full.
Fred came to Grace from Morgenthaler Private Equity Partners where he was a partner. Previously, he was President and CEO of ICG Commerce. At AlliedSignal, Inc. (now Honeywell) from 1993 to 2000, he held leadership roles in general management, business development, and finance in the company's specialty chemical, polymer, chemical intermediaries, and fibers businesses, including service as Vice President and General Manager of the performance fibers business. Fred began his career at GeneralElectric (GE), where he spent 12 years in financial management positions at five business units. He completed GE's Financial Management Training Program and its benchmark General Management Course.
Fred graduated magna cum laude with a BS degree in Finance from the State University of New York at Oswego. He has served since 2008 as an independent director of NVR, one of the largest home builders in the United States.
Hudson La Force's Bio
As President Chief Operating Officer of W. R. Grace & Co., Hudson La Force is responsible for Grace's Catalysts Technologies and Materials Technologies business segments and Grace's global manufacturing and supply chain operations. As COO, Hudson is focused primarily on safety, sales growth, manufacturing excellence and capital investment. He was named to this role in February 2016 and elected to the Grace Board of Directors in November 2017.
Hudson joined Grace as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in 2008. In that role, he focused on improving the company's profitability, cash flow, and return on invested capital. During his tenure as CFO, gross margins increased eight percentage points, Adjusted EBITDA margins increased 11 percentage points, adjusted free cash flow increased nearly three times, and adjusted return on invested capital increased 11 percentage points. Hudson was deeply involved in Grace's internal transformation into a fully-integrated global operating company and its external transformation into two industry-leading public companies in February 2016.
Prior to joining Grace, Hudson served as Chief Operating Officer and Senior Counselor to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education where he led a transformation of the department's management practices. He also served as a member of the President's Management Council.
Before entering public service in 2005, Hudson worked at Dell Inc., where he held general management and financial leadership positions at the company's headquarters in Austin, Texas and in China. From 2002 to 2005, Hudson served as a general manager for Dell in China, leading a $500 million business unit through a period of double-digit sales growth, triple-digit earnings growth and significant operational change. Before joining Dell in 1997, he worked at AlliedSignal, Inc. (now Honeywell), Emerson Electric Co. and Arthur Andersen & Co.
Hudson earned an MBA at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor's degree at Baylor University. He is a board member of Madison Industries, a Chicago-based industrial holding company, and a former board member of KIPP DC, a public charter school operator in Washington, D.C.?