Business
Matthews International Appoints Thomas Gebhardt to Board of Directors
Mr. Gebhardt Brings Significant Experience in Batteries and EV Technology Solutions Gregory Babe to Resign from Board, Effective Immediately PITTSBURGH, Feb.
About this update from Matthews International Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":"Mr. Gebhardt Brings Significant Experience in Batteries and EV Technology Solutions Gregory Babe to Resign from Board, Effective Immediately PITTSBURGH, Feb. 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Matthews International Corporation (NASDAQ GSM: MATW) (“Matthews” or the “Company”) today announced that Thomas Gebhardt has been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. As previously announced on January 24, 2025, Gregory S. Babe informed Matthews that he would not stand for re-election to the Company’s Board at the 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. As a result of the addition of Mr. Gebhardt to the Matthews Board, Mr. Babe has resigned from the Board, effective immediately. Mr. Gebhardt brings deep industrial automation and battery expertise to Matthews, including over 30 years of experience at Panasonic where he most recently served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Panasonic’s North American business. Under his leadership at Panasonic, the company transitioned from a consumer electronics firm to a successful provider of devices and systems solutions in the industrial and technology sectors. Mr. Gebhardt is recognized for having significantly expanded the company’s presence in Automotive, growing the business to more than $2.8 billion in revenue over a five-year period. In batteries specifically, he grew the business from multi millions to billions of dollars in revenue. Notably, Mr. Gebhardt led Panasonic’s partnership with Toyota and was intimately involved with the development of the exclusive supply relationship between Panasonic and Tesla, including leading Tesla’s Reno based Gigafactory project, which produces the majority of lithium batteries for Tesla’s electric vehicles. Most recently, Mr. Gebhardt served as Interim CEO of Imprint Energy, a printable battery printing company that was acquired by CCL Industries in 2023. “We are delighted to welcome Tom to our Board of Directors,” said Alvaro Garcia-Tunon, Chairman of the Matthews Board of Directors. “Tom has spent his entire career in the battery ecosystem and has extensive knowledge of the EV industry from both the battery and OEM perspective. As we grow our Dry Battery Electrode (DBE) solutions business, our shareholders will benefit from Tom’s deep and specific knowledge of our industry, significant financial acumen and strategic capital al...