Brookhaven native tapped to lead Cornerstone Building Brands

Published 9:00 am Thursday, July 31, 2025

Cornerstone Building Brands, a leading manufacturer of exterior building products in North America, Tuesday named Brookhaven native Gunner Smith as its new chief executive officer, effective Aug. 11.

Smith was selected after the company’s Board of Directors conducted a comprehensive search to identify its next CEO. His strong commercial background and experience leading high-performing businesses in the building products industry, along with his relentless focus on delivering value to customers, positioned him as the best choice for the role.

Most recently, Smith served as president of Roofing at Owens Corning, a leading building products manufacturer, a position he held since 2018. In this role, he had responsibility for a market-leading roofing business in the United States and Canada focused primarily on roofing shingles and components that go to market through distributors, home centers and lumberyards. Prior to assuming this role, he served as vice president of sales, distribution and home centers and in other positions leading sales, marketing and pricing for the organization since he joined Owens Corning in 2008.

“We are excited to have Gunner Smith joining Cornerstone Building Brands as our next CEO,” said John Krenicki, chairman of the Board of Directors and interim president and chief executive officer, Cornerstone Building Brands. “He has tremendous depth of experience and expertise in the building products industry and an unwavering focus on customers. With a proven track record, Smith has driven profitable growth and market share gains by achieving revenue growth and delivering value creation as a trusted partner to his customers, including many of our existing channel customers.”

Before joining Owens Corning, Smith was a national sales manager at PlyGem, which is one of the two companies that formed Cornerstone Building Brands. Earlier in his career, he served in sales management roles for eight years at Elk Corporation.

He has been a board member of Howmet Aerospace since 2023, serving on the audit and finance committees.

Smith received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Mississippi State University and additional credentials in Executive Selling from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Cornerstone Building Brands is a leading manufacturer of exterior building products for residential and low-rise non-residential buildings in North America.