|
Wayne Yakich became president of Praxair Distribution, Inc. in 2000. Praxair Distribution manages Praxair’s packaged-gases business in the U.S. and Canada. Yakich joined the company in Canada in 1982 as controller for a packaged-gases subsidiary. Following subsequent assignments as business analyst and manager of information systems at Canadian headquarters, he was named worldwide controller for another subsidiary, Praxair Surface Technologies, in 1991. In 1994, he became controller for the U.S. industrial gases business and shortly thereafter was named director, financial services, for the North American Industrial Gases business unit. He served as director of the CBI Merger/Integration Project Office before being named regional sales director for U.S. merchant gases in mid-1996. The following year he became director of Praxair’s global reengineering organization and joined Praxair Distribution in 1998 as vice president, Business Operations. A native of Canada, Yakich holds a bachelor of science degree in biology from the University of Western Ontario and a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Windsor. He is a Canadian Chartered Accountant. Praxair is the largest industrial gases company in North and South America, and one of the largest worldwide, with 2005 sales of $7.7 billion. Praxair products, services and technology bring productivity and environmental benefits to a wide variety of industries, including aerospace, chemicals, electronics, energy, food and beverage, healthcare, manufacturing, metals and others. More information on Praxair is available on the Internet at www.praxair.com.
| 