Rich Gottwald is the President and CEO of the Compressed Gas Association. CGA’s mission is to promote the ever-improving safe, secure, and environmentally responsible manufacture, transportation, storage, transfilling, and disposal of industrial, medical, and food gases and their containers.

Before joining CGA, Rich served as President and CEO of the Association of Pool and Spa Professionals, where he realigned the organization to be a unified voice to protect existing markets and grow new business for its members. Before APSP, Gottwald held senior management positions in several trade associations, including the International Sign Association, the Plastics Pipe Institute, and the Society of the Plastics Industry. He began his career as an application engineer with Dow Chemicals.

Gottwald holds a BS in Plastics Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and is a Certified Association Executive (CAE).