Denver Post Profiles Ball Corp. CEO & Chairman David Hoover '67

April 9, 2003

April 9, 2003, Greencastle, Ind. - R. David Hoover, president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Ball Corporation and a 1967 graduate of DePauw University, "sits atop a company that is an example of how solid business practices, focus and foresight not only can sustain a corporation in tough times but also make it robust," writes Dan Luzadder in the Denver Post. "In the past two years -- building on a corporate overhaul that began in the mid-1990s -- Ball has startled the stock market with double-digit growth when those around it -- including some competitors -- are struggling to survive."

The Post article continues, "Former and current board members and outsiders say Hoover and his close-knit management team have succeeded by doing things the old fashioned way -- with patience instead of speed, planning instead of impulse and diligence where it is due... In January, Hoover's second anniversary as Ball's chief executive, he was recognized by Bloomberg News as the No. 2 CEO in the country based on Ball's stock performance [read more here], which exceeded the S&P 500 average by 179 percentage points."

Sue Ambron, dean of the Colorado University-Denver School of Business, tells the paper, "David Hoover is not what I would call your Hollywood CEO. He's button-down ... and focused on the basics." Former Ball Corp. board member R.C. Merc Mercure Jr. says, "Dave is an intelligent individual with a huge amount of common sense. And those two don't always go together. He is one of the best deal-makers I have ever run into."

For his part, Dave Hoover says, "We are not a company that only cares about money. But if you're public, and we are, then to me there are many different constituencies and stakeholders -- the employees, the communities we live in, the customers and the suppliers that we have. And all the families involved. We have over 12,500 people who depend every day on us not screwing up, so they can keep working and making a living and sending their kids to school."

He continues, "We have been through some tough times in this company ... and I didn't like that. But we now have a management team who has seen that. If you have never been at war, you don't know what peace is. Maybe if you haven't had trouble, you don't appreciate how good it can be."

You can access the entire article online at the Post's Web site by clicking here.

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