Pelstar, LLC, Awarded Private Company Board of the Year

Exerpted from Private Company Director Magazine at: 

http://www.privatecompanydirector.com/features/private-company-boards-year-2016-named

Private company boards of directors honored at the Private Company Governance Summit, May 12, 2016 in Washington, D.C. The awards, presented at the Private Company Governance Summit on May 12 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., honor private company boards who best serve their stakeholders—owners, shareholders, employees and community - with best practices in their structure and performance.  

The three awardees represent different ownership structures:  family-owned, employee-owned (non-ESOP) and investor-owned firms.  They share, however, a commitment to professional governance at the board level.  While all of the nominees exhibited many governance best practices, the three awardees, in the opinion of the judges, exhibited a consistent, transparent approach to their governance, and modeled many best practices from public company governance.

Pelstar LLC
Pelstar, LLC designs, manufactures and markets a comprehensive line of professional
products under the 90-year-old venerable brand of Health o meter™ Professional Scales. Originally formed in 1919 as the Continental Scale Works, its heritage is as the inventor of the “doctor’s” beam scale. Today, Pelstar maintains the tradition as one of the leading producers of weighing instruments for professional health care and medical uses, along with market-leading innovations such as their ELEVATE EMRscale™ and multiple EMR connectivity solutions.

Pelstar was created when a group of private equity investors bought a small division of the former Sunbeam. Initially, there were 15 shareholders plus a venture fund; over time, the fund was bought out, though the head of the fund reinvested in the company as an individual.  There are now 20 shareholders, including 10 employee shareholders.  With strong governance, the company now commands more than 50% market share, and its growth rate outpaces its industry peers.  While Pelstar is governed by a small board, with four members, it models itself after public company board best practices.

Key Governance Characteristics:

• Chair and CEO roles are separated.

• Two committees—Compensation and Audit—composed only of independent directors.

• Audited Results, with auditors report to board during executive session.  Audit firm also comments on SOX-oriented internal controls, rare for a private company.

• Executive session at every board meeting.

• Periodic succession planning.

• Periodic cyber threat and cyber defense discussions.

• Quarterly board meetings, with agenda and minutes, and an annual letter to shareholders.

• Management attends board meetings, other than during executive session.

“Our board doesn’t just go down the agenda and tick boxes,” says CEO Dan Maeir.  “It promotes a transparency that goes throughout the whole company, encouraging our people to take risks and make decisions.  Rick Crandall, our Chairman, is a cheerleader, a team leader and a culture setter.”

Pelstar is the manufacturer of Health 0 meter Professional (R) line of medical scales, the top-selling brand in North America, see: http://www.homscales.com/ 

Rick Crandall, Executive Chairman www.rickcrandall.net