Hatco Corporation announces the retirement of David Rolston, effective April 5th, 2024, and the promotion of Lorne Deacon.
After 30 years at Hatco and nearly 20 years as president and CEO, Rolston passed the president’s reigns to Lorne Deacon in June of 2022. He then embarked on the task of facilitating a smooth transition of leadership for the 800 Employee Owners of the Hatco Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Rolston will retire from the CEO position and will remain on Hatco’s board of directors, and Deacon will be promoted to president and CEO.
Deacon joined Hatco in 2018 as Director of Global Marketing & Product Development. He was promoted to Vice President of Global Marketing in 2019, VP in 2021, and president in 2022. Deacon has a degree in Business Marketing from the Haworth School of Business at Western Michigan University and an executive MBA from the Lubar College of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He started his career in the banking and financial sector, then joined the foodservice industry in 2013, eventually in a leadership role with Middleby Corporation.
Rolston is an enthusiastic ESOP evangelist, and welcomes contact from anyone who would like to talk about forming an ESOP or leadership attributes that work well in employee-owned companies. He can be reached through Hatco at (414) 671-6350.
