For only the fifth time in its storied 127 year history there is a new President at the helm for Vail Rubber Works in St. Joseph. He is Vail Harding, and today is his first day in that new role.
The 127-year old family owned and operated manufacturer headquartered in St. Joseph says that Vail Harding, a 22-year veteran employee takes the reins from Joseph (Bill) Hanley, who has served as company President for the past 31 years.
Harding is a graduate of Grand Valley State University and holds degrees in Criminal Justice, Sociology, and Mechanical Engineering. He joined Vail Rubber in October of 1998 as a sales engineer and applications specialist, moved through the customer service area and into engineering and manufacturing where he became Manager of Manufacturing and Maintenance in February 2015. A year ago, in April of 2019 Harding was promoted to Vice President of Operations.
Harding lives in south St. Joseph with his wife Jackie and their two sons. He is President of the Rubber Roller Group, an industry trade group, serves as a Director on The Kinexus Group Board, as well as on the Boards of two subsidiaries of The Kinexus Group; Youth Solutions and the MMTA. Harding and his family are members of the St. Joseph Catholic Church
Harding succeeds Bill Hanley who has served as Vail Rubber’s fourth President since 1989. Hanley will continue to serve on Vail Rubber’s Board of Directors.
Hanley says: “We’re very pleased to announce Vail’s promotion to serve as the next President of Vail Rubber and confident that, with his leadership and experience and the support of his strong management, sales and production teams, Vail Rubber will be in good hands as we move further into our 2nd century. In his new role Vail will be supported by his fellow officers Matt Hanley, VP of Sales and Technology, and Brian Nimtz, VP of Finance. Vail’s promotion to President also completes the company’s senior management transition from fourth to fifth generation family management of Vail Rubber.”
Founded in 1892 by William A. Vail, Harding’s great-great grandfather, Vail Rubber today provides rubber and polyurethane roll coverings as well as steel cores, repairs and other related products and services to the central, southern and eastern U.S. flat-rolled steel, aluminum and paper industries.
Vail Rubber’s primary operations are located on Langley Avenue in St. Joseph and that facility is supported by a manufacturing facility located just north of Mobile, Alabama. Ground was broken on construction of a second St. Joseph-area manufacturing facility on Glenlord Road in Royalton Township in 2019 and that facility is expected to begin operations in late spring here in 2020.
Matt Hanley Brian Nimtz
