Big changes at Maytag in Newton. Chairman and C-E-O Lloyd Ward has resigned, after about 14 months in the top job. Leonard Hadley will return at the company’s C-E-O. Pat Teed, union leader of the U-A-W local which has four-thousand workers in the Newton production facility, says he’s pleasantly surprised, as he says it seemed like Ward was trying to “peddle our company.”.The U-A-W labor contract with Maytag expires June 1st, and Teed says it’ll be nice to have an “old neighborhood friend” like Hadley back at the top of the company. Teed says the consistent rumors of Maytag’s possible sale did not sit well with locals. Newton Mayor David Aldridge says having Hadley back at the helm gives Newton a better chance of keeping Maytag’s corporate headquarters in Newton. Hadley, who’s been with Maytag since 1959, served as Maytag’s C-E-O for seven years before retiring in August of 1999. Ward, who is Iowa’s top black business executive, joined Maytag in 1996 and took over after Hadley retired.
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