Paul iams biography

Life.
Paul Falknor Iams was the founder of the Iams Company which is known for its line of pet foods.
From our start in 1946, Paul F. Iams sought out new ways to create premium, quality pet foods that would help give dogs and cats happy, healthy and long lives.

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Former Iams CEO dies at 82

DAYTON, OHIO — Clay Mathile, former chief executive officer of The Iams Company, died Aug. 26 at the age of 82. According to a statement from the Mathile family, he passed peacefully in his home near Dayton, surrounded by family.

“Clay was a visionary leader, impassioned philanthropist, devoted husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and friend,” the Mathile family said in a statement. “He profoundly changed the lives of many through his generous heart, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his unwavering belief in others.”

In 1970, Mathile moved his family to Dayton, where he would partner with Paul F. Iams, founder of Iams Food Company. Twelve years later, Mathile and his wife, MaryAnn, assumed full ownership of The Iams Company upon Paul Iams’ retirement, and Mathile became CEO of the company.

According to Mathile’s biography, The Iams Company’s sales totaled $13 million in 1982 when Paul retired. Under Mathile’s leadership, the company grew into a billion-dollar brand before it was sold to Procter & Gamble in 1999 for $2.3 billion.

During

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Iams Company

7250 Poe Avenue
Dayton, Ohio 45414
U.S.A.
(937) 898-7387
Fax: (937) 264-7160
Web site: http://www.iams.com

Private Company
Incorporated: 1946
Employees: 1,200
Sales: $300 million (1996 est.)
SICs: 2047 Dog & Cat Food

Iams Company is a manufacturer of premium dog and cat foods which are distributed only through veterinarians, animal breeders, and specialty pet stores. It is the number two company in the high-end pet food niche, and the seventh largest pet food enterprise overall in the United States. The company sells two brands, Iams dog and cat foods, and Eukanuba. Iams has manufacturing facilities in Lewisburg, Ohio; Aurora, Nebraska; Henderson, North Carolina; and a plant for its international division in Coevorden, the Netherlands. The company distributes its pet foods in more than 70 countries worldwide. Iams also maintains a pet research center in Lewisburg, Ohio, where veterinarians, chemists, and nutritionists study dog and cat diets on laboratory animals raised as pets. Occupying a booming segment of the pet food market, Iams in the late

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Paul F. Iams

Paul Falknor Iams (; August 11, 1915 – October 26, 2004) was the founder of the Iams Company which is known for its line of pet foods.^[1]^[2]

Life

Iams was born in Dayton, Ohio, on August 11, 1915. He was a talented high school athlete who won the Ohio State Tennis Championship in 1933. In 1937, he graduated from Ohio State University and became interested in the pet food business while working with his father, Harry, a grain broker. He joined Procter & Gamble in 1938 and was a soap salesman before joining the Navy in World War II.

Iams graduated from the Ohio State University in 1937, and sold dog food during the Great Depression. He learned that not even severe economic hardship would stop owners from buying food to feed their pets. This was a revelation to Iams, as most owners fed their pets leftovers or their own concoctions. A self-taught animal nutritionist, Iams founded his company in 1946, and, by 1950, was creating his own recipes in his own plant in Dayton.^[3]

When he retired in 1982, Iams sold his stake in