Eric Ashleman is central to the transformation of IDEX Corporation (NYSE: IEX) from an industrial holding company into the innovative, growth-focused, values-driven manufacturing company it is today. A member of the Board of Directors, Eric has served as Chief Executive Officer and President of IDEX since 2020. He previously served as Chief Operating Officer beginning in 2015.
Passionate about developing high-performing global teams and talent, Eric has been integral to the company’s success, including his role in developing the company’s distinct worldwide culture, operating model, and strategy. He joined IDEX in 2008 as the president of GAST Manufacturing, a unit of IDEX that produces high-quality, niche pneumatics. In 2010, he added responsibilities for Global Dispensing, the leading provider of automated color tinting solutions for the architectural coatings market. He received his first group executive role in 2012, with a collection of six companies from two IDEX reporting segments. In 2014, he expanded his group executive scope into the IDEX Health & Science and Optics businesses.
With all business segments reporting to him as Chief Operating Officer, Eric and his teams developed and piloted the elements of the IDEX Operating Model and began work with 80/20, an approach to business that focuses on the vital few variables that drive the greatest degree of impact.
Beyond his work leading IDEX, Eric is also a director of Modine Manufacturing Co. and serves as Chair of the Executive Committee for the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI).
Prior to joining IDEX, he served as the president of Schutt Sports, the market leader for protective equipment in American football, and led operations and management teams at three business units of Danaher Corporation. It was there, in tough turnaround situations, that he developed the ability to focus teams on the critical few business levers to drive quick momentum and progress.
Eric grew up in Detroit, surrounded by automobile manufacturing in the heart of the American industrial Midwest. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Michigan. He has a passion for history and literature, and is a lifelong, practicing musician who spends much of his free time playing and recording. Eric and his wife enjoy travel, the arts, and a seemingly endless loop of home maintenance and rehabilitation of their 1920’s-era home. They have four grown children.