
Mike Reinbold
Regional Territory Manager
I was born and raised on property that was my grandfather’s farm in rural Upper Bucks County, Pennsylvania. My mother was a homemaker and my father worked in the maintenance department at Riegel Paper. I grew up a country boy whose first “real job” was working for the neighboring farmer at one dollar an hour. My family taught me the value of hard work and high ethics. Thanks to my dad I developed an interest in everything mechanical and a love of automobiles.
I attended Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in 1981. By the time I had graduated college I had developed a nice little auto body repair and refinishing business but made the decision to drop that back to a hobby and pursue a career in industry. Painting cars was the beginning of my background in coatings.
I was hired by the James River Paper Company and advanced quickly from Quality Control Technician to Shift Supervisor, and then to Superintendent of the Hughesville Mill. I spent 8 years as Superintendent and managed all aspects of production including implementing large capital projects. I developed skills for both people and project management while working for James River.
The paper industry was in a rapid decline in the Northeast at this time. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, I left the mill and took a position in sales to the industry. That position was eliminated six years later when sixty percent of the mills in my territory closed. I learned a lot about field sales and technical service during this time.
My next career move was a field sales position with a Chesterton products distributor. I soon became proficient in their ARC line of coating products and developed sales in my Philadelphia Territory. When AW Chesterton bought the Protective Floorings and Linings company, the distributor that I worked for started a coatings division. Because of my past coatings and large project experience, I was asked to manage it. It was during the next twelve years that I would learn our coatings business.
Late in 2015 two things happened. My position with the Chesterton distributor was eliminated when they lost the Chesterton portion of their business and Josh Thompson, who was my Milamar salesman at the time, called me asking if I knew anyone that might be interested in selling for Milamar in the Northeast. “I know just the right person.” I told him, and the rest is history.