Our Mission
At WernerCo Professional Brands, we take our mission to heart. We protect the lives and livelihoods of trades professionals worldwide. These aren’t just words on our walls. Each and every one of our more than 5,000 employees embrace this purpose. Our mission drives our innovations, our decision making and our culture. It’s the glue that binds our brands and our people, and keeps us true to our customers and users across the globe.
Our History
All of our global brands have rich histories of their own specific to their regions, countries and consumers. Our brand portfolio stretches across Europe, Australia and North America. Many of our brands have been serving their consumers for nearly a century. Although they each have defining and distinctive pasts, the future of WernerCo Professional Brands is guided by our collective mission to protect the lives and livelihoods of trade professionals.
Our Innovation
Our passionate pursuit of new ways to keep our users safe and their investments secure drives our innovation pipeline. With our user-centric approach, global capabilities and unique engineering and development process we continue to launch first-to-world products and features across all of our brands.
Our Leaders
The leaders at WernerCo Professional Brands set the pace for growth, operational excellence, global efficiencies and a thriving culture. They drive a cohesive commitment to our mission and our values.
Global Executive Team
Gary Scott
Chief Executive Officer
Gary is the CEO at WernerCo and a visionary leader driving growth and transformation. Prior to joining WernerCo, he was Global President, Floor Care Division for TTI. Before joining TTI, Gary served as President of Chamberlain and Heathco, Americas at The Chamberlain Group, Inc. He also spent over 10 years at Newell Rubbermaid in various leadership roles across Commercial and Consumer products in both the U.S. and Europe. He is an engineer by studies and started his career as R&D engineer at Stanley Black & Decker in the UK.
W. DeVane Tidwell
SVP, General Counsel
DeVane Tidwell has served as Werner Co’s Senior Vice President, Corporate Secretary and General Counsel since May of 2021. In this capacity he is responsible for corporate governance, board and shareholder matters, and all legal matters of the worldwide WernerCo organization. Prior to joining Werner Co, DeVane served as a Managing Director of the Partner Practice Group for Major Lindsey & Africa, a global legal executive search and consulting firm. His career also includes serving as Vice President and Group General Counsel at Newell Brands. DeVane began his legal career as an associate and then partner in an AmLaw firm where he specialized in securities and mergers and acquisitions. He earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science from Davidson College and his juris doctor from the University of North Carolina School of Law.
Drew Waddell
Chief Financial Officer
Drew is the Global CFO at WernerCo where he is responsible for all Financial, Investor, Treasury and Tax activities. Drew joined WernerCo in 2019 as the Vice President – Corporate Finance, was promoted to North America CFO and most recently moved to his current role in 2021. He started his career in Public Accounting with BDO Seidman before working in various fields of finance with Kraft Heinz, Boston Beer Corporation and TreeHouse Foods. Drew holds a BBA & MAcc from University of Wisconsin – Madison and a MBA from DePaul University.
Kevin Bohan
Chief Human Resource Officer
Kevin is the Chief Human Resources Officer at WernerCo with proven Human Resources and thought leadership experience across international organizations. He started his career with UPS and spent a number of years at the beverage giant Diageo where he lived and worked in New York City, London and now resides in the Chicago area. Kevin has been spotlighted on Chicago Crains Notable Business Leaders in HR list, earned ONCON’s Top 50 HR Leader distinction and is a frequent speaker on business and HR topics. Kevin holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Montclair State University and a Masters Degree in Management from Stevens Institute of Technology.
Brian Kagen
Chief Marketing Officer
Brian is the Global Chief Marketing Officer with responsibility for R&D, product development, brand, innovation, and marketing. Prior to WernerCo, Brian served as General Manager for LTP Home Services, an industry leading consumer home services provider. Brian also spent six years as Executive VP & CMO at Medifast, a NYSE publicly traded health and wellness products manufacturer. Brian was classically trained at Stanley Black & Decker over a 14‐year span where he progressed through a variety of product management, marketing, strategy and commercial disciplines across the DeWalt and Black & Decker brands, ultimately as Global VP of Marketing for the Consumer Products Group. Brian attended University of Pennsylvania where he earned a B.A. degree, followed by an MBA from Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business. He continued to hone his executive management skills at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and the CMO program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Board Members
Robert King
Chairman of the Board
Rob is Chairman of the WernerCo Advisory Board. He is a former Director and CEO with extensive executive, general management, sales, marketing and operations experience with premier, multi-national consumer products companies including CytoSport, Pepsi Bottling Group, PepsiCo, Ernest & Julio Gallo Winery and Proctor & Gamble. Rob also spent multiple years as an investor and director in private equity and publicly traded companies where he has successfully grown entrepreneurial and high growth businesses.
Michael Gahleitner
Operating Partner
Michael is co-head of the Industrial Tech team at Triton. Before joining, he held various senior management positions at Hilti Corporation. He served as VP Sales in Germany, Senior Vice President Marketing & Key Accounts for Region North America and most recently, Michael was a member of the Group Executive Management Team with global responsibility for the Energy & Industry division. Earlier in his career, he worked at McKinsey & Company as an Engagement Manager in the German and South-East-Asia offices. Michael holds a degree in social & economic sciences from Johannes Kepler University, Linz and an MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, Atlanta.
Christian Müller-Wolf
Investment Professional
Christian is an investment professional at Triton. Prior to joining Triton he worked at Oaktree Capital Management in New York as an Associate focused on investment opportunities in North American middle market companies. Previously he also worked for BNP Paribas as an Analyst in the Merchant Banking Group. He holds a BA in International Business & Management from Dickinson College.
Work at WernerCo Global Brands
We are powered the entrepreneurial spirit and innovative minds of our people all across the globe. Our employees are our greatest asset.
Meet John
A former Marine, having done 2 tours in Iraq & Afghanistan, John Berg fell in love with weightlifting when he joined the military, and that love has been going strong for over 16 years. John attended Northern Illinois University for Manufacturing
Engineering where he played on the NIU Rugby team, started Powerlifting (winning state and coming in 3rd at nationals in 2015 in the AAPF Federation), and competing in Strong Man competitions. While in a college welding class, John found a passion
for fabricating his own weightlifting equipment. That passion and skill has afforded John an exclusive opportunity within WernerCo Professional Brands supporting the KNAACK® brand's partnership with The World’s Strongest Man. Having been
in the Strong Man world himself, John knows that the WSM promoters like to have their athletes lift the largest thing possible as it's an easy visual to show just how strong these men really are. Instantly, John knew that a KNAACK jobsite box would
be the perfect fit.
There is no typical workday for John. After his daily team meetings, he could spend the whole day in the lab running tests, brainstorming with his team on the best way to build a pneumatic cycle machine, or at his computer writing test reports for the
engineers. He also helps with the marketing team to build and ship promotional materials, like the KNAACK Cooler. To summarize, John does a little bit of everything for everyone.
"Building equipment for the WSM competition is still my favorite accomplishment so far at WernerCo, and I look forward every year to building something new and challenging for the competition."
Learn More