Hubbard-Hall Names 1st female CEO


Chairman's daughter to become president, CEO on Jan. 1



WATERBURY -- Molly C. Kellogg recalls bringing her three daughters to her office at Hubbard-Hall Inc. in Wilmington, Mass., a few years ago.



Kellogg, who on Tuesday was named to become the new president and chief executive officer of Waterbury-based Hubbard-Hall on Jan. 1, said one of her then-10-year-old twin daughters asked an interesting question when they visited the board room.



"The person who is in charge, where does she sit?" her daughter asked.



The fact that her daughter used a female pronoun made Kellogg smile.



"It's different from when I grew up," she said Tuesday. "It told me my daughter was growing up in an environment that tells her she can do anything."



Mom is certainly proof of that.



Hubbard-Hall Inc., a family-run business that distributes industrial chemicals and manufactures specialty products for the metals-finishing industry, announced Tuesday that Kellogg, daughter of Chairman and Chief Financial Officer Charles T. Kellogg, will succeed her cousin, President and Chief Executive Officer Andrew K. Skipp, when he retires on Dec. 31.



She will be the first woman to lead the company in its 165-year history.



Skipp announced his intent to retire at the end of the year to the company's board of directors on Sept. 4, according to Charles Kellogg, who said the board then moved to approve his daughter as president and CEO.



Skipp held those titles for the past 15 years, and has been with the company for 37 years. He will work with Molly Kellogg through the end of the year to make the transition as seamless as possible, Charles Kellogg said.



"Andrew said his job was over," Kellogg said. "Molly was clearly the next president. He felt she was ready to do it, so he's stepping out of the way."



Both Skipp and Molly Kellogg are sixth-generation family members working for the company, which was founded in 1849.



Molly Kellogg, who has been with the company for 20 years, currently serves as executive vice president in charge of strategy, sales, and business development, working out of the Wilmington, Mass., facility. Hubbard-Hall also has a facility in Inman, S.C.



She has been with the company for 20 years, and is directly responsible for some of Hubbard-Hall's largest customers, the company said in a news release. She earned a bachelor's degree in comparative literature from Princeton in 1987, and an MBA from INSEAD, an international graduate business school in Fontainebleau, France, in 1993.



Molly Kellogg lives in Newton, Mass., with her husband, 14-year-old daughter, twin 13-year-old daughters, and a 10-year-old son. She will continue to live in Massachusetts, but said she expects to have offices at all three Hubbard-Hall facilities.



"I'll be everywhere," she said. "I see my job as being on the road a lot."



That job, however, will not include directly overseeing daily operations, she said. That will fall to Gerry L. Mastropietro, who currently serves as a vice president but on Jan. 1 will become chief operating officer, a new position.



"He'll be here running the day-to-day operations," Molly Kellogg said. "I see my role as growing the business, and being the face of the company externally."



She also wants to enhance the family-business aspect of the company, which has 111 employees, including "four or five multi-generational" families of workers, she said.



"Have you ever heard of a Patek Phillipe watch?" she asked. "It's a very high-end watch, and their advertising slogan is 'You never actually own a Patek Phillipe.' That's what I think about coming to the leadership here. My job is to protect it for the next generation."



Contact David Krechevsky at dkrechevsky@rep-am.com.  

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