Caldwell-Deerfield Manufacturing

Caldwell-Deerfield Manufacturing was an automotive parts manufacturer owned by Samuel Caldwell. Samuel was mostly retired but maintained an interest as Chief Executive Officer and chairman of the board. His son, Adam Caldwell who owned small number of shares was Chief Operating Officer and vice-chairman of the board who felt his father was looking over his shoulder.

Adam went into the company straight from college, as was expected of him. He was effectively an employee and not paid as highly as others in a similar position. His son Matthew Caldwell was also expected to join the company after college but determined to delay that a while and died of leukemia before he could be persuaded into it.^DS3

Caldwell-Deerfield Manufacturing was successful in getting orders from General Motors and Ford for parts which had been sourced from China but the quality control wasn't good. Caldwell-Deerfield Manufacturing had a reputation for high quality control.

After Samuel's death Adam stepped back to become Chief Executive Officer, leaving the day to day running of the company to Bob who he promoted from his assistant to be Chief Operating Officer. At Bob's suggestion Fred Redding was promoted from Production Manager into Bob's previous role.^DS18

Adam was investigating selling the company to an employee buyout group led by Bob.^DS35