Fleetwood RV Inc. announced Monday that CEO Chuck Wilkinson is retiring.
Along with president and chief operating officer John Draheim, Wilkinson led the Decatur company since a private investment fund bought its assets last July from bankrupt Fleetwood Enterprises Inc.
The company appears to have prospered ever since. The workforce has grown from 630 in August to more than 1,200 as of Monday, spokeswoman Heather Everett said.
Fleetwood Enterprises employed more than 1,300 in Decatur before the economy started to spiral downward in December 2007.
Wilkinson’s retirement is effective immediately, and Draheim has taken over as CEO. Everett said Wilkinson’s retirement was planned.
“That was always the game plan – that Chuck would work his way out as we got going,” Everett said.
Wilkinson will take a seat on Fleetwood RV’s board of directors.
“Together with John, Chuck has helped build a high-caliber team and corporate culture focused on manufacturing quality motor homes,” John Becker, Fleetwood RV’s chairman of the board, said in a statement.
Wilkinson started with Fleetwood Enterprises in 1969, rising to senior vice president of the company’s Housing Group. When American Industrial Partners bought the company’s Decatur assets, Wilkinson helped set up finance, human resources and other functions that had been done at Fleetwood Enterprises headquarters in Riverside, Calif.
Draheim, 52, has worked in the industry since 1997. He has worked for Fleetwood Enterprises, Monaco Coach Corp., National RV Holdings Inc. and Thor California Inc.
