Northern Technologies International Corporation (NASDAQ: NTIC) has named Gautam Ramdas as its President and Chief Executive Officer, the Minneapolis based maker of corrosion inhibiting products and sustainable polymers announced on September 8, 2026. Ramdas took up the role effective September 4, 2026, and was also elected to the company's board of directors. He succeeds G. Patrick Lynch, who moves to the position of Chairman of the Board.
The change caps an orderly, internally planned succession. Lynch, who joined NTIC in 1995 and served as President from 2005 and Chief Executive Officer from 2006, will remain an employee of the company to support the handover while focusing as Chairman on long term strategy and growth initiatives. Richard Nigon, the former Chairman, becomes lead independent director. Brian Haglund, previously Vice President of Operations for North America, was promoted to Chief Operating Officer as part of the same reshuffle.
Ramdas has spent two decades at NTIC, joining in 2005. He most recently led the company's Zerust Integrity Solutions unit, and before that served as Vice President and Director of Global Market Development for Oil and Gas, two of the areas the company has singled out for expansion. Earlier in his career he held consulting roles at IBM Business Consulting Services and at PricewaterhouseCoopers Management Consulting. He holds an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy, in Chennai, India.
NTIC develops and markets proprietary products and services in more than 65 countries through subsidiaries, joint ventures and distributors. Its core business is corrosion prevention under the ZERUST brand, which has served automotive, industrial, mechanical, mining, agricultural and retail markets for over 50 years and has more recently moved into the oil and gas sector. The company also sells a line of bio based and biodegradable polymer resin compounds and finished products under the Natur-Tec brand.
For a small cap company, the transition is notable for how much continuity it preserves. Rather than recruiting externally, NTIC has promoted a long serving insider and kept its departing chief executive close as Chairman and employee, a structure designed to protect institutional knowledge and customer relationships during the handover. Placing Ramdas on the board at the same time gives the new chief executive a direct governance voice from the outset.
Ramdas's background also maps closely onto where NTIC has said its growth will come from. His work building the oil and gas business and the Zerust Integrity Solutions division sits at the center of the company's stated push to expand higher value corrosion solutions, while the Natur-Tec bioplastics portfolio gives NTIC a second lever tied to demand for sustainable materials. Executing across both fronts at once will be an early test of the new leadership team.
