ST. LOUIS, Jan. 12, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — LMI Aerospace, Inc. (Nasdaq:LMIA), a leading aerostructures and engineering services provider to the commercial, business and regional, and military aerospace, today announced the establishment of a new organizational structure and three new leadership positions within its Aerostructures segment. As part of the Company’s revised strategy announced in November 2014, the Aerostructures segment has organized its plant operations into three Centers of Excellence (COEs): Assembly, Machining and Fabrication & Composites.

“The management of our 18 facilities under three COEs gives us a unique and exciting opportunity to streamline our internal processes, improve synergies and implement best practices. We believe this new structure will increase organizational clarity and provide better service to our customers, improving both our overall performance as well as our competitive posture,” said Joe DeMartino, Chief Operating Officer (“COO”) of Aerostructures.

Management of each Center of Excellence will be led by a Vice-President and General Manager reporting to the COO.

“I am pleased to announce the promotions of Scott Underwood and David Fillmore to Vice President and General Manager, leading the Machining and Fabrication & Composites COEs, respectively. I am also pleased to welcome Keith Schrader to the LMI team as the Vice President and General Manager of our Assembly COE,” DeMartino said.

Underwood is a seven year veteran of LMI, having joined the company as part of the acquisition of Valent Aerostructures in December 2012. He previously held the role of Director of Program Management overseeing several large machining and assembly programs. Fillmore joined LMI in 2013 as the Director for Processing, overseeing the Company’s Tulsa, Oklahoma and Cuba, Missouri processing facilities. Prior to coming to LMI, Fillmore was a Director of the G650 Program at Spirit AeroSystems. Schrader comes to LMI from GKN Aerospace where he was Vice President of Programs. He has 16 years of large scale manufacturing and complex machining experience with multi-million dollar programs.

“In concert with a strong functional leadership team, I am confident Scott, Dave and Keith will be successful in leading their COEs to meet our short and long term Aerostructures objectives,” DeMartino said.

In connection with LMI’s offer of employment to Schrader, and pursuant to his employment agreement dated January 2, 2015, Schrader will be granted an inducement award pursuant to NASDAQ Listing Rule 5635©(4). The inducement award consists of 1,770 shares of restricted stock at a per share price of $14.13 with a value of $25,010 on the grant date, January 2, 2015. The stock shall vest on the three-year anniversary of the date of grant, subject to Schrader’s continued employment on the vesting date. The award is being issued as an inducement material to Schrader’s employment.