Company News, General

David Panish joining GREMCO as new Vice President

After 47 eventful years at Markel Corporation, we are very pleased to welcome David Panish as GREMCO’s new Vice President. We wish him all the best for a good start and look forward to a successful collaboration with a renowned and experienced expert in the field of Fluoropolymer-based liner products.

The Markel Corporation

The Markel Corporation, where David Panish was employed for most of his career, was founded in 1922. In 1983, the company was sold to Warren Mang, who resold the company in 2013. The new owners finally decided to liquidate Markel Corporation in 2020 without any notice – a hard blow to the loyal employees, customers, suppliers, and sales staff.

Throughout its existence, Markel focused on the manufacture of specialized Fluoropolymer-based liner products. These were primarily used in the automotive sector. For example, Markel generated about 80 percent of its sales in the automotive sector through the sale of PTFE liners and cables for automatic and manual transmissions, clutch cables, and emergency release cables. For the 20 years before Markel’s dissolution, GREMCO served as the company’s sales representative in Europe.

David Panish at Markel Corporation

Mr. Panish began his career at Markel Corporation at age 18 following his high school years on the production floor extruding PTFE liners – primarily on the night shift. As a result of a conversation with one of Markel’s owners, he attended Villanova University in parallel with his plant work. Thanks to his dedication, within a few years David Panish rose to quality control manager and eventually to Director of Quality Assurance. Responsible for customer satisfaction, Mr. Panish traveled extensively during this time to meet with customers and conduct new business, which he enjoyed. In this position, the ambitious young manager continued to establish the Quality Assurance Department. In the following years, he rose to become national sales manager and eventually vice president of global foreign trade for the company. Since 80% of Markel’s sales were generated in the export sector, these fell within Mr. Panish’s area of responsibility. As part of this role, the up-and-comer worked with numerous Markel global representation teams, such as GREMCO in Europe, GSI in Asia and Brazil, Bahrat Thakkar in India, and DM Associates in the US and Mexico.

Mr. Panish remembers his work at Markel as very enriching. He had the chance to travel a lot, meet and befriend many people as well as meet loyal customers and suppliers. The US American, who grew up in a small town, had never dared to dream of the opportunity to get to know large parts of the world with a variety of different cultures and to explore important sights around the world. This, he said, strengthened the current vice president of GREMCO in his recognition of the equality of all people.

GREMCO welcomes David Panish as new Vice President

Although the assets of the Markel Corporation have been liquidated and the land and building are now owned by another company, the Markel extrusion plant has been sold and is back in operation. Therefore, we are still able to produce our high-quality GREMCO liners in the usual Markel quality in cooperation with some former Markel employees. David Panish, meanwhile, is delighted to be re-entering the cable and liner industry as vice president of GREMCO and to be re-establishing personal contact with both old and new customers. In this new position, the already highly experienced “newcomer” will also be able to sell high-quality PTFE-based liners to the same extent as he once did at Markel. Therefore, we are very pleased to introduce David Panish as the new GREMCO Vice President.

Here is a listing of the former Markel liners with their associated GREMCO product versions: