Folience announces planned departure of its CEO

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Folience, a Cedar Rapids-based ESOP-owned holding company and parent company of The Gazette, announced today that President and CEO Daniel Goldstein is resigning and leaving at the end of the year or when a successor is named.

“Daniel has made a personal decision to transition from Folience, and we thank him for his vision and leadership over the years,” said Tom Pientok, chairman of the Folience board.

“Daniel creatively developed a strategy to leverage the power of employee-ownership to build something different,” Pientok said. “His vision uniquely blended the legacy of a well-respected media company with the passion and desire to build a diversified, thriving, employee-owned company.”

Goldstein, the Folience CEO and president for seven years, said he will be moving to the East Coast to be closer to family. He will work remotely during the transition in leadership, visiting business units and handling other company matters.

An executive search for Goldstein’s replacement is under way.

The Folience board has engaged an external partner to help it to identify the characteristics and values for Goldstein’s successor. It also has hired a national search firm that recruits high-caliber senior executives for ESOPs.

Goldstein says he is proud of the accomplishments of his team and all the Folience employee-owners during his tenure, adding he knows that what they built will flourish and continue to improve and grow.

Folience has about 500 employees in three businesses: The Gazette, Life Line Emergency Vehicles in Sumner, and Cimarron Trailers, which has facilities in Oklahoma and Kansas.

Folience was named the 2022 National Employee Owned Company of the Year, “a great honor,” Goldstein said.

“I told my co-owners that it is not an award that makes us great,” he said. “It is because of our great employee-owners that we won the award.”