Canfield businessman appointed to YSU Board of Trustees

Charles T. George of Canfield, chief executive of Hapco Inc., Strangepresse and Triptech, is the newest member of the Youngstown State University Board of Trustees.

Gov. John Kasich appointed George to a nine-year term on the board to replace Leonard Schiavone, whose term has expired.

George, who graduated from Brookfield High School in 1976 and earned a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from YSU in 1981, worked for 17 years at Packer, Thomas & Co. in Youngstown, serving as company president and senior shareholder. In 2007, he became chief executive and majority shareholder of Hapco Inc. in Kent, Ohio, the largest independently-owned provider of industrial heat tools and extrusion supplier in the world. He also is chief executive of Strangepresse, which manufactures extrusion heads for the additive manufacturing industry, and chief executive of Triptech, which produces thermoplastic filament and welding rod used in the oil and gas, textile, 3D printing and additive manufacturing industries.

He is the board president of the Youngstown Community School, a member of the Board of Advisors for Sister Jerome’s Poor, treasurer of the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley, and a member of the OH WOW Roger and Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science and Technology. He previously served on the finance committee of Catholic Healthcare Partners (now Mercy Health Partners), finance committee chair of the Youngstown Symphony Society, president of the Mahoning Valley Chapter of the Ohio Society of Public Accountants and president of the Howland Rotary Club.

His wife, Kathleen S. Padgitt, is a medical doctor, and they have a son, Alex, who is lead computer character animator at Quietman Studios, and a daughter, Leigh, who is an associate account manager of International eBooks at Macmillan Publishers, both in New York.