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Eagle Ottawa's Segerdahl Receives Award

9 June 1999

Eagle Ottawa's Segerdahl Receives Automotive & Transportation Interiors(R) Lifetime Achievement Award

    DETROIT, June 9 -- Anders Segerdahl, chairman of Eagle Ottawa
Leather Co., has been named recipient of the 1999 Automotive & Transportation
Interiors Achievement Award.  Segerdahl's accomplishments were reviewed by the
editorial board of the Automotive & Transportation Interiors Magazine and
include the heads of interior design from General Motors, Nissan, Toyota,
DaimlerChrysler, Honda and Mazda, as well as Magna, Johnson Controls,
Faurecia, and TRW.
    The Lifetime Achievement Award is an annual recognition of outstanding
individuals who have made substantial and lasting contributions toward the
advancement of the automotive interiors industry in one of four categories:
design, engineering, manufacturing or management.  The award is dedicated
exclusively to professionals working in the automotive interiors field.
    This year's award was presented at a special benefit scholarship and
awards banquet held in Detroit on June 8, 1999.
    Anders Segerdahl, this year's recipient, started his career in Sweden, in
his family's 300-year-old tannery, where he learned the craft of leather from
his father, grandfather and uncles.  In the decades since, his lifetime goal
has been to improve the quality of automotive leather and, just as
importantly, the environment in which it is produced.
    Since coming to America in 1956, Segerdahl's achievements in management
have been remarkable.  He has grown Eagle Ottawa Leather Co.'s revenues from
$17 million in 1961 to $500 million today, and the company's work force from
300 employees to more than 3,000.
    But perhaps Segerdahl's greatest achievements have come from his
commitment to the environment.  Under his leadership, Eagle Ottawa was the
first leather producer to convert from the traditional solvent-based finishing
system to a cleaner, water-based finishing process, reducing toxic air
emissions by 99 percent.
    Additionally, he oversaw the development of Newaygo Farms Inc. in Grand
Haven, Mich., a farm-like facility that turns waste from leather tanneries
into a soil conditioner.  Most recently, Segerdahl has directed the
development of Phoenix Leather, a "green" leather that uses a centuries-old
process of soaking leather in a solution of bark and water, which eliminates
chrome, aluminum and other metals and makes the finished product both
biodegradable and recyclable.
    For his environmental leadership, Segerdahl himself received the Theodore
Roosevelt Conservation Award at a White House ceremony in 1992, and through
his efforts, Eagle Ottawa has received the Michigan Chamber of Commerce
Environmental Quality Award and the Michigan Senate Republicans' White Pine
Award for environmental excellence and stewardship.
    At 74, Segerdahl is still overseeing Eagle Ottawa's operations.
    Today, Eagle Ottawa has nine factories around the world, with design
centers in Grand Haven, Mich., and Florence, Italy.  Its leather products can
be found in more than 80 models of nearly every major make of car in the
world.
    Past recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award are Trevor M. Creed,
Chrysler Corp.; Randal T. Murphy, Lear Corp.; George Moon, George Moon Design;
Heinz C. Prechter, ASC Inc.; Lloyd W. Rogers, Delphi Interior & Lighting
Systems; Allen K. Breed, Breed Technologies Inc.; Bob Velanovich, Johnson
Controls Inc.; and Donald J. Schwarz, General Motors.