Lane Retires From Ideal Industries

Robert N. Lane, president and chief executive officer of Ideal Industries, is retiring from the company as part of an arranged succession strategy. Dave Juday, Ideal’s chairman of the board, will assume CEO responsibilities until an ongoing search process for a new CEO is finalized. Lane joined Ideal in 1997 as president before being named CEO in 2000. He is credited with spearheading several acquisitions for Ideal, both domestically and internationally, including Anderson Power Products (2000), WaveTek (2001), Casella Measurement (2006), Trend Communications (2004) and the SureTest testing line (2000). Lane helped to reduce redundancy throughout the enterprise and strengthened Ideal’s goal of individual divisions operated as stand-alone business units. Lane came to Ideal from Ready Metal Industries, a Chicago manufacturer of retail displays where he served as CEO.