Scott Legleu retires from RDAbbott after four decades in the rubber industry
Garden Grove, CA – RDAbbott announced the retirement of Scott Legleu, a rubber industry veteran with 43 years of service. Scott joined RDAbbott as a Business Development Manager in 2017 but began his rubber industry career decades earlier after working as a schoolteacher in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Colleagues from across the industry and throughout Scott’s long and successful career describe him as honest, helpful, kind, and a good listener. The Rubber Division, ACS plans to honor Scott with a Service Award during their International Elastomer Conference. This award ceremony will take place this Thursday from 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM in Expo Theater #2 in the David Lawrence Convention Center.
Scott began his rubber industry journey in 1981 with Uniroyal Chemical, a business that no longer exists. There, he worked in production and in the lab on EPDM rubber, accelerators, and stabilizers. Four years later, Uniroyal offered him a sales position. Scott credits his first sales manager, Vin Rooney, with teaching him about the value of building trust. “It takes a long time to gain the trust of your customers and your colleagues,” Scott recalls learning. “So, think hard about your response to difficult questions or situations.”
As a Uniroyal salesperson, Scott earned an annual spot in the company’s Top Producer’s Club more times than anyone else. He was then promoted to Regional Sales Manager in 1999, a position he held for five years. His next career stop was as a Sales Director for Rhein Chemie, now part of the LANXESS Group. Leo Goss, a LANXESS colleague who worked in production, recalls how Scott taught his salespeople to “make it as easy as possible for our customers to do business with us.”
During his 10 years with Rhein Chemie, Scott met some of his future colleagues from RDAbbott, the company’s former West Coast distributor. Keith Thomas, RDAbbott’s President, was among them. “I always admired Keith’s view of people being your greatest asset,” Scott recalls. Scott impressed Keith as well, which later led to Rhein Chemie and RDAbbott seeking new market opportunities together. After a two-and-a-half-year stint as Director of Sales for East West Copolymer, Scott contacted Keith about a job and joined RDAbbott in 2017.
“Scott is a hands-on leader who really understands our customers and their processes,” Keith says today. “He works through strong personal networks, something I have always tried to emulate.” RDAbbott’s Mat Dove, who was recently promoted to Director of National Sales, credits Scott for “sharing a wealth of knowledge with many people.” Cancarb’s Chris Sawicki was among them. Chris describes Scott as not only a “technical resource,” but also as “a masterclass on how to develop relationships.”