Dixie Cullen Interests (“Dixie Cullen”, “DCI” or the “Company”) is excited to announce today the retirement of Catherine James the DCI founder and CEO. After a lifetime dedicated to building Dixie Cullen into a successful and respected enterprise, Catherine embarked on a strategy two years ago designed to ensure the continuity of Dixie Cullen’s culture, customer centric values and impressive growth trajectory. The initial phase of that strategy was to partner with Briarwood Partners (“BWP”), who not only shared these values and objectives but also provided various forms of support and assistance to Catherine in her endeavor. This support included financial engineering, organizational strengthening, and facilitating Catherine’s long-term goals, which encompassed her eventual retirement.
Catherine will be stepping away from all day-to-day operational responsibilities. Those responsibilities will pass to Todd Ruden, who joined DCI in September 2023 as Dixie Cullen’s President. Catherine has been working closely with Todd for almost 18 months in preparation for this moment.
Post retirement, Catherine will continue to maintain a significant ownership position in Dixie Cullen and will continue to be involved at the Board of Directors level, assuming the role of Board Chair.
Catherine’s last day in the office will be February 28th, 2025. Between now and then, she will be furthering the transition of roles, responsibilities, and duties to Todd and the rest of the Dixie Cullen team.
Catherine commented “After much reflection and working side by side with Todd for the last 18 months, it became apparent to me that this Team under Todd’s capable leadership is ready for this. I have complete confidence in Todd and the Team and expect the extraordinary service we have always strived to provide to our customers will continue without interruption.”
Todd further commented “We are extremely excited to give Catherine this well-earned opportunity to pursue her many other interests in retirement. We are both humbled and excited to execute on the responsibility to build upon and continue the legacy Catherine is leaving in our hands. Speaking on behalf of all 65 employees at DCI, we wish Catherine the very best in this new chapter in her life. We are ready to rise to the occasion and are very excited about our continued growth and evolution, both individually and collectively.”
As Board Chair, Catherine’s e-mail will remain, but any future communications previously directed to her, are advised to be re-directed to Todd Ruden for his handling.
Mike Baldwin of BWP commented “I am pleased that we have reached this point, and that Catherine has the same level of confidence that I hold in Todd and the broader Team at DCI. I am truly excited about what the future holds not only for Catherine in her retirement, but for DCI as we build from the solid foundation which is rooted in delivering unmatched customer satisfaction.”
ABOUT DIXIE CULLEN: Dixie Cullen www.dixiecullen.com is an industrial heavy-lift warehouse operator situated in and around Port Houston. DCI has a 29-year operating history and currently operates over one million square feet of warehouse space across six warehouses and an additional 20 acres of outdoor storage capacity. Indoor lift capacity ranges up to 100-tons and outdoor is upwards of 200-tons. Approximately one-third of indoor warehouse space is climate-controlled, and DCI plays a leading role as a Foreign Trade Zone Operator in the Houston area Zone 84 which is a designation authorized by the Federal Office of Homeland Security and the Customs and Border Patrol.
ABOUT BRIARWOOD PARTNERS: Briarwood Partners www.brairwoodpartners.net is a Houston-based private investment firm that invests in middle-market companies across the United States. BWP has specific expertise in industrial services, waste, infrastructure, transportation, logistics, light manufacturing, aviation, midstream and downstream service businesses. BWP acquired a majority stake in DCI in July 2023.
Please direct all media and industry correspondence regarding this press release to Hannah Harris at hannah@dixiecullen.com.