Textainer Group Holdings, a lessor of intermodal containers, announced after 22 years at Textainer, Philip K. Brewer, the company’s president and CEO, retired. Brewer had served as Textainer’s president and CEO since September 2011. He joined Textainer in 1996 and held positions responsible for finance, risk management and resale prior to his tenure as CEO.

“I have had the enormous privilege of working at Textainer for 22 years, seven of which were as president and CEO,” Brewer said. “During that time, I have been honored to work with the industry’s most dedicated group of professionals focused on serving our more than 300 shipping line customers located around the world.”

As part of the succession planning process, the board of directors of TGH appointed Olivier Ghesquiere, currently executive vice president – Leasing, to be the president and CEO of TGH. Ghesquiere will also be appointed to the company’s board of directors as a Class II director.

“Given Textainer’s improving financial performance, strong financial position and a customer base which is increasingly relying on container lessors for support, I believe the time is right for Textainer to move forward with a new CEO,” Brewer said. “Mr. Ghesquiere’s more than 25 years of equipment leasing industry experience working in both Asia and Europe make him uniquely qualified to lead Textainer in the years ahead.”

Ghesquiere joined Textainer in December 2015 as senior vice president for Sales and Marketing and was promoted to executive vice president-Leasing in January 2017. He previously worked at Groupe Ermewa as CEO where he was responsible for growing the railcar and locomotive fleet to become the second largest in Europe. Prior to Groupe Ermewa, he was the managing director for Eurotainer where he developed its tank container business and served as vice chairman and chairman of the International Tank Container Organization (ITCO) leasing committee.

“The board of directors and Textainer’s employees thank Mr. Brewer for his many years of dedicated service and leadership to the company, during which time Textainer has grown to be one of the largest lessors of intermodal containers. We wish him the best of luck in his well-deserved retirement and will always consider him a valuable member of the Textainer family,” Hyman Shwiel, chairman of TGH, said. “Mr. Ghesquiere has been a part of the Textainer executive management team for the last two years and has proven to be a talented leader. The board of directors is confident in his successful transition to president and CEO.”