Gear Motions Announces Retirement of Samuel R. Haines
Samuel R. Haines has retired from his position as CFO of Gear Motions, Inc. effective at the end of 2017, following 44 years of service.
In 1973 Haines was in graduate school and in search of a thesis topic to complete his MBA at Babson College in Wellesley, MA. As fate would have it, his father was in need of business plan for a bank loan for a small gear manufacturing company that he had acquired a few years earlier. Thus, as they say, was the trap set.
Following graduation and in the midst of the `73 “oil recession” Haines signed on (temporarily) to help work through the newly formed Gear Motions’ first acquisition of Oliver Gear in Buffalo, NY.
Still on “temporary assignment” in 1980, Haines and his family moved to Syracuse, and he assumed the management of the recently acquired Nixon Gear as VP/GM. Shortly thereafter he was named president of Gear Motions in 1985 when his father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
In 2005, in anticipation of his eventual retirement, he began the sale of the company through the establishment of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) and became chairman and CFO. This created a 10 year financial plan for transferring 100% ownership of the company to its employees, assured that the company would remain at its current location and viable for many years to come, and created a phased financial transition for the owners.
Under Haines leadership, the company won numerous awards including the 1999 Donlon Award for Employee Centered Practices and many customer awards for outstanding performance, among them the UTC Supplier Gold Award, Carrier Q+ Certified Supplier Award and Eaton Certificate of Excellence.
