Titan Machinery founder, Chairman and CEO David Meyer will assume the role of executive chairman, effective February 1, 2024, as part of the company’s leadership succession plan. Meyer is the company’s largest shareholder and will also continue to serve as chairman of the board.
Bryan Knutson, current president and chief operating officer, will succeed Meyer and will become a member of the company’s board of directors at that time.
Meyer co-founded Titan Machinery in 1980 and has been the catalyst behind its growth, from its two initial store locations to nearly 150 ag and construction equipment dealerships across three continents. According to Titan Machinery, Meyer was an early pioneer of dealer consolidation, realizing the benefits of consolidating dealership resources to leverage scale, equipment and parts inventories, training, and other industry expertise to provide equipment support to customers.
“I am very proud of what our team at Titan Machinery has achieved since my early days in the dealership nearly 50 years ago, and the breadth and depth of our operation is a testament to the talent that we’ve attracted to the organization,” says Meyer.
“Bryan is a natural leader with a successful track record and has proven his ability to excel across all aspects of our business. As his career has progressed through senior management positions with increased levels of responsibility, Bryan has been an integral member of our executive team and has demonstrated a thorough and insightful approach to strategy and operational execution, while at the same time showing an ability to build lasting relationships that have served our customers, employees, suppliers, and shareholders extremely well. I am extremely confident in Bryan’s capabilities and have watched his development over the last 20 plus years as he has excelled in both store and central leadership roles, which makes him uniquely qualified to lead Titan Machinery in our next stage of growth.”
In his new role, Meyer will lead the board of directors, counsel Knutson and the leadership team, and continue advancing Titan’s acquisition strategy.
Knutson has been with the company for more than two decades and most recently served as chief operating officer since 2017, adding the position of president in 2022. During his tenure, Knutson also led Titan Machinery’s North American ag and construction equipment operations and served as a sales consultant, general manager and various other senior field positions.
He is chairman of the Pioneer Equipment Dealers Association board, representing industry equipment dealers in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. He has served long tenures on both the Case IH Agriculture and Case Construction Dealer Advisory Boards. Bryan graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn.
“I’m excited, honored, and humbled by the opportunity to lead the Titan Machinery organization, which has been such an important part of my life for over 20 years,” says Knutson.
“During my time at Titan Machinery, David and I built a very strong relationship, working together with our global team to deliver on our growth strategy through a track record of robust and consistent organic growth, M&A execution, advancing our customer care strategy and employee engagement, and instilling a culture of operational excellence that has resulted in an improved margin profile across all segments of our business. I look forward to continuing to work with David, our Board, our executive leadership team, and our more than 3,000 global team members to continue providing world-class service to our customers and building significant value for our stakeholders.”
