Warren Batts was the CEO for companies based in the north suburbs including Dart & Kraft and Premark, and also was active in Chicago’s civic affairs and a teacher at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
“Warren’s whole life was about adding value, and if you worked with Warren and you were close with Warren, it was infectious,” said E.V. “Rick” Goings, the former CEO of Tupperware Corp.
Batts, 91, died on Sept. 2 at his home in La Jolla, California, of complications experienced after suffering a severe heart attack, said his wife of 66 years, Eloise. Batts had lived in La Jolla since 2017 after previously residing in Kenilworth and Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood.
Warren Leighton Batts was born in Norfolk, Virginia. After a stint in the Navy, Batts received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1961 from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was his class valedictorian. He then picked up an MBA from Harvard University in 1963.
Batts began his career working for North Carolina-based Kendall Co., which made textiles and surgical dressings, then was an executive vice president for California-based Fashion Development Co., and also oversaw manufacturing for lingerie maker the Olga Co.
He joined some Harvard classmates to buy Triangle Corp., a hand tool manufacturing company in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and was the company’s CEO from 1967 until 1971, when he joined papermaker Mead Corp. in Dayton, Ohio. From 1978 until 1980, Batts was Mead’s CEO, and during that time, he worked to fight off one of the most hostile takeovers ever up to that point — a bid from Occidental Petroleum that eventually was withdrawn.
In 1980, Batts become CEO of Los Angeles-based Dart Industries, which at that time owned Duracell batteries, West Bend home appliances, Wilsonart plastics and Tupperware plastic containers.
That same year Dart merged with Northfield-based Kraft, and Batts soon relocated to the Chicago area to lead Dart & Kraft as its president from 1981 until 1986.
The Dart-Kraft merger was undone in 1986, when Dart & Kraft announced that it would split into two. Batts was named the chairman and CEO of what had been the Dart side of the business. Based in Deerfield, the former Dart piece took on the new name of Premark International, and it consisted of Tupperware, West Bend, Hobart restaurant equipment and Wilsonart, with $2 billion a year in sales.
“‘Premark’ denotes the premier trademarks under which our high-quality products are sold as well as the preeminent positions they have achieved,” Batts told the Tribune in 1986. “Premark International goes forward with a sound balance sheet that gives it financial capacity to support operational and future growth objectives, make acquisitions and weather economic surprises.”
At the outset, Batts called the leaders of the four units he would control “a pretty fired-up group.”
“This will be a fun company,” Batts told the Tribune in 1986. “The units have been operating in the shadow of Kraft.”
James Ringler, who was Premark’s chief operating officer while Batts was its CEO and later succeeded Batts as CEO, said Batts “saw himself more as a strategist than an operating guy, although he was capable on the operating side.”
“Given the two and he could only do one, he’d much rather be a strategist. In fact, that’s why he originally brought me in. He was a thoughtful, caring guy,” Ringler said.
Goings, who succeeded Batts as Tupperware’s CEO, said, “Humility was one of the first things I say about Warren — he always felt the need to study harder and work harder, and he was an incredible listener.”
David R. Parker, a former member of Premark’s board of directors, praised Batts for hiring “high-powered talent” like Goings and Ringler, and getting the most out of his team.
“The thing I remember a lot was his piercing intellect, and the sense of humor that went with it,” Parker said. “And he was so intellectually honest, and I think he did a terrific job at the places where I saw him. Few people I have met in my life have inspired me as much as Warren.”
Parker also noted Batts’ measured approach toward colleagues.
“From an organizational standpoint, he had a remarkable ability to hold his tongue at the right time,” Parker said. “If he saw something that was nutty, he didn’t call it nutty — he’d say, ‘Let’s talk about this.’”
In 1995, Premark announced that it would spin off Tupperware, with the rest of Premark remaining one company. Batts stepped back as Premark’s CEO at that point but remained its chairman, and he also served for a year as Orlando, Florida-based Tupperware’s chairman and CEO before retiring. All the while, Batts remained based in the Chicago area.
“Spinning off Tupperware was a great thing to do, and that didn’t happen without Warren,” Ringler said. “And from a shareholder standpoint, it was successful.”
Premark was acquired by Glenview-based Illinois Tool Works in 1999.
“He took a disjointed group of durable products and brought order to it and then it eventually sold to Illinois Tool Works,” Goings said.
After retiring from Tupperware in 1997, Batts spent time fishing and on charitable endeavors, his wife said. Batts chaired the School of the Art Institute’s board of governors, and served as a trustee at Northwestern University and as chairman of the board of what then was known as Children’s Memorial Hospital. He also served on the boards of Sprint Corp., Sears, Roebuck and Co., Methode Electronics, Cooper Industries and Allstate Corp.
From its creation in 2008 until 2012, Batts also was the unpaid chair of an independent panel, the Cook County Health & Hospital System, which was formed to run the county’s beleaguered public health system.
Batts also was an MBA instructor at the U. of C., where he taught a course on corporate governance and another one called “Taking Charge.” In the latter class, Batts brought in outside speakers to each class to provide students with real-world perspectives.
In addition to his wife, Batts is survived by a daughter, Terri; and a sister, Judith Warren.
There were no services.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.