Shakeup at Thetford Corporation, as president leaves and new CEO Stephane Cordeille steps in

Thetford Corp. of America has announced that effective February 13, CEO Stephane Cordeille will also assume direct general management responsibility for the Americas.

Cordeille will assume all day-to-day responsibilities previously held by Thetford President Kevin Phillips, who has left the organization to pursue other opportunities.

“We thank Kevin for 12 years of dedicated service and sincerely wish him the best in his future endeavors,” Cordeille said. “I’m excited for Thetford’s future and, as we move forward, our number-one priority remains delivering quality products to our global customers.”

Thetford is a privately-held company headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., with seven manufacturing facilities in four nations.

Thetford subsidiaries include Norcold, a leading manufacturer of gas-absorption and AC/DC refrigerator/freezers for the RV, marine and truck markets; Tecma, an Italy-based maker of fine-china toilets and powerful waste-transfer systems; and Thetford Ltd., which manufactures Spinflo brand high-quality cooking and heating appliances, as well as accessories.

Here is additional information on new Thetford CEO Stephane Cordeille:

Effective immediately, Stephane Cordeille has been promoted to Chief Executive Officer of Thetford Corporation.

“Thetford is a global company with very similar operations in the US and Europe,” said Cordeille. “Because of this, nothing changes for our customers and we will continue to make the best use of our global resources to the benefit of all our customers.”

Cordeille has a long history with Thetford and is already known by many of Thetford’s customers. He joined Thetford in 1988 as sales manager of its French subsidiary. He has served as director of sales & marketing and director of European operations before being named managing director of Thetford’s RV Europe operations in 2004.

Prior to joining Thetford, Cordeille headed up the merchandising team for Gloria-Friskies, a unit of Nestle Corp. He has a degree in economics and attended the Business School of Exeter for commerce and management.

It was also announced that Peter Struijs was promoted to Chief Financial Officer, worldwide. Struijs, who joined Thetford in 1999, has been the European director of finance and IT since 2006. Before that, he was the company’s manager of finance. He holds a BA in business economics.

“These promotions indicate the strength of personnel at Thetford and the commitment of ownership to reward long-term performance and contribution to the company,” said Michael J. Harris, president and COO of DKM (Thetford’s parent company), referring to the promotions.