Matthew Missad

Courtesy of Universal Forest Products
  • Title
    CEO
  • Company
    Universal Forest Products

You wouldn’t want a wood-products company to be, er, lumbering—but deep roots help. The latter might explain why CEO Missad, who started working at the company as part of a maintenance crew in high school, is leading the company to unprecedented heights. The company just reported the best third-quarter results in its history and its profits over the past 12 months, according to S&P CapitalIQ, are three times what they were just three years ago. Despite slumps in the lumber market, Missad continues to implement new programs, such as ones that train contractors how to use the company’s products. In 2015, the company made its first acquisition outside of North America, landing it for the first time in the Australian market.