Change at the top: The C-suite jobs changing hands in 2025 across the rental sector

The year has already seen a notable number of senior departures and appointments across the rental and equipment manufacturing sectors following mergers, retirement requests and changing financial realities.

Sunstate Equipment appointed Norty Turner as president and CEO after former president and CEO Chris Watts announced plans to retire after nearly 30 years with the company.

Norty Turner, President and CEO, Sunstate Equipment. (Photo: Sunstate Equipment)

US rental company SitePro Rentals appointed Lon Jennings as its new president, replacing former president Tim Rule, who has left SitePro and Sammons Industrial. Sammons said Jennings was a “seasoned executive” with more than 30 years of leadership experience in sales, engineering, operations, finance and business development.

Opifex-Synergy, the major US rental business in the Southern states of the US, also appointed Joseph ‘Jay’ Vaughn III as its new CEO this year. Vaughn was the CEO and co-founder of Texas-based Opifex. His appointment follows the merger last year of Opifex and Florida-based Synergy Equipment. He succeeds Synergy founder J C Mas, who will become chairman of the board of the combined group.

At UK-based Nixon Hire, CEO Graham Nixon, who took over the family business from his father John Nixon in 2005, announced he was stepping down after ten years in the role. Nixon moves into a Non-Executive Director position on the company’s main Board while the company’s current chief operating officer, Brian Cornett, succeeds him as chief executive officer.

Changes at Cramo and Ramirent 

At Finland-based rental firm Cramo, Martin Holmgren stepped down from his role as chief operating officer after more than 20 years at the firm, to begin a new chapter in his career. Holmgren was appointed COO in 2020 following Boels Rental’s acquisition of Cramo. Before that, he served as senior vice president of Fleet Management. Cramo said that the COO position would be restructured internally.

Meanwhile at rival Finish rental firm Ramirent, which was acquired by France-headquartered Loxam Group in 2019, Erik Bengtsson, who led the company since 1 January 2020, stepped down from his role as CEO.

Brian Cornett, Nixon Hire's new CEO. (Image: Nixon Hire).

In Italy, Kiloutou said that Yann Canari, managing director of its Italian business was leaving to pursue new professional challenges after a 25-year career with the group. Canari has been replaced by Andrea Lusvardi, a former vice president of sales and service at Linde Material Handling in Italy, and general manager of Errevi Automation, an Italian warehouse automation business.

Lambertsson, the Nordic rental company, promoted its regional managers Björn Fredriksson and Tobias Kvick to the positions of CEO and deputy CEO, this year after previous CEO Carl Rülcker, moved to focus on leading parent company Peab Byggsystem.

And, at the European Rental Association, Carole Bachmann took on the role of secretary general at the beginning of July, following the retirement of longtime association leader Michel Petitjean.

Construction equipment manufacturers too have announced a series of major changes to senior leadership positions.

One of the most significant of these was the news in April that Jim Umpleby was leaving the post of CEO and chairman to take up the role of executive chairman after eight years as CEO and a total of 45 years working for the world’s biggest construction equipment OEM. The role of Cat CEO and chairman has been taken up by Joseph E. Creed, a 28-year veteran of Cat.

Manufacturers announce leadership changes too

Meanwhile Yanmar Compact Equipment announced that Jose Cuadrado has left the position of its chief executive officer after just over a year in post and was being replaced by Ryu Kudo its president of Yanmar Construction Equipment in Japan, a role he will retain alongside his new position at the compact equipment business.

In May, Chinese OEM LuiGong announced that long time president and chairman Zeng Guang’an would step down and be replaced by Luo Guobing, who joined LiuGong in 1994.

Dinolift announced the appointment of Petter Rönnlöf as its new CEO, succeeding Karin Godenhielm, who will continue to play a vital role at the Finland-based MEWP manufacturer as active owner and board member.

Patrick Murris (left) hand over the reins to Guillaume Van Hoeck as he becomes Managing Director for Europe. (Image: Haulotte).

Haulotte appointed Guillaume Van Hoeck as managing director for Europe, succeeding Patrick Murris. With over 25 years of experience in global B2B roles, Van Hoeck has been with Haulotte since 2014 and brings a long track record in sales, marketing, service, and team leadership across continents to the role, said the company.

Although not all of these changes come as a result of the current challenging business environment, data from other industries shows that the number of companies changing CEOs this year has risen to a record high.

According to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 222 CEOs stepped down from their posts in the first month of the year alone, a 14% increase on the same month a year earlier and beating the previous record set in 2020 when 219 CEOs left their positions.

“Due to the ongoing political and economic uncertainty, many companies may find now to be a prudent time to change leadership,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president and labour expert for Challenger, Gray & Christmas.