Stellar COO to Depart After 27 Years

03.29.23

Garner, Iowa — Stellar, a 100% employee-owned and operated manufacturer of high-quality mechanic trucks and cranes, tire service trucks, hooklifts, roll-off cable hoists, trailers and service truck and van accessories, announces that Chief Operating Officer Steve Schnieders plans to leave Stellar in March 2023.

“Steve has led the operations group since 2005 and during that time, Stellar has grown significantly,” said David Zrostlik, president of Stellar. Throughout this period of growth, “We’ve maintained a strong tradition of operational excellence and Steve has played an integral part of that success as he helped lead numerous plant expansions and helped Stellar branch out to additional locations in Northern Iowa, Nebraska and Pennsylvania.”

Schnieders joined Stellar in 1996 and was “employee number 126.” Throughout his career, he has held a variety of leadership roles in both engineering and operations, and has been instrumental in helping grow the operational footprint to five different locations with more than 700 employees.

In the next chapter of his life, Schnieders looks forward to pursuing his passions and serving his community and church in a variety of capacities, returning to his roots with his family farm and spending additional time with his growing family — he’ll become a grandfather later this year.

“We thank Steve for his tenure, service and accomplishments, and wish him well with his future endeavors,” Zrostlik said.

With Schnieders’ departure, Stellar also announces the promotion of Brian Kingery to Vice President of Operations. Kingery joined Stellar in 2022 with more than 30 years of manufacturing experience. Throughout his career, he has helped improve manufacturing performance and led due diligence for operations for acquisitions and integration, as well as performed site selection activities for new facility startups.

“We look forward to the positive contributions Brian is going to make for Stellar,” Zrostlik said. “This is an exciting time, and I am thrilled to congratulate Steve on his life change and Brian on his promotion within Stellar.”