2025 Outstanding Directors: Don Hayward
Over 17 years, the board of directors of Clearfield, a Brooklyn Park-based manufacturer of fiber-based digital connectivity technology, has changed its membership many times. With two exceptions: One is board chair Ron Roth. The other is Don Hayward. Both have served on the Clearfield board since there was a Clearfield.
The company was called APA Cables & Networks when Cheri Beranek and others reorganized it under its current name. “I needed someone on the board who had practical manufacturing experience,” recalls Beranek, who became Clearfield’s president and CEO, positions she still holds. The APA board she inherited lacked that expertise. Beranek knew Hayward through a local CEO peer group, and she asked him to provide that manufacturing insight.
When Clearfield launched, Hayward was president of Engel Diversified Industries, a Jordan-based contract manufacturer. After about a decade at Engel, he was named president of Schaffer Manufacturing, a Wisconsin-based contract fabricator of industrial and commercial metal products. He led Schaffer from 2017 to 2020.
During his time on the Clearfield board, Hayward “has grown so much,” Beranek says. And so has Clearfield. What had been a $10 million company in 2008 posted revenue of $168 million in fiscal 2024. It now has manufacturing operations in Mexico and Europe as well as the U.S.
“Clearfield is considerably larger now than any of the companies that I led as a president,” Hayward says. “The skill I bring to Clearfield is probably the governance history I’ve built over the 17 years.” To Hayward, who serves on Clearfield’s governance committee (and once chaired it), good board governance includes “choosing the right cast of characters.” Hayward believes a diversity of voices is crucial to a board’s success—and to Clearfield’s ongoing prosperity.
As far as his own contributions, Hayward wryly describes one of his roles on the Clearfield board as being “the old man in the room. I’m the guy who slows things down. I make sure the pace is set such that we are constantly moving forward, but we’re not making knee-jerk reactions.”
Hayward says that he also works to ensure “that every voice in the room is heard. I will interject myself into conversations and debates because if I see someone who is holding back, I won’t let it go to a decision point until after that voice is heard.” He also works to gently tamp down any voices that might be dominating a discussion.
“We’ve never had a dissenting vote come out of our board meetings,” Hayward says. This doesn’t mean that everyone is in complete agreement. “There are folks who are very conservative financially, and there are folks on the other end of the spectrum who will argue vehemently that we’re not moving nearly fast enough,” he notes.
Hayward believes that diversity is essential to a thorough vetting of an issue. “We’re tenacious about sticking with a debate until we reach a consensus,” he says. The board hashes out the issue, takes a vote, “then we all leave moving forward.”
Like many telecom businesses, Clearfield moved at high speed during the pandemic, jumping from $193 million in sales to $270 million within 18 months. During that time, Hayward “was always the voice of reason,” Beranek says. That doesn’t mean he has been overly cautious, she adds. But he insisted that the company be prepared for market changes and even slowdowns.
And a slowdown did come. Clearfield’s sales fell to $167 million in 2024 as service providers reduced their inventory levels. Another factor was the slow rollout of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD), a federal program to expand rural broadband access.
In 2025, Clearfield has been bouncing back. Its fiscal 2025 third quarter, which ended July 31, showed year-to-date net sales up 11%, along with a return to profitability. But Northland Securities downgraded its rating on Clearfield. After an early-August stock price of about $44 a share, Clearfield’s stock hovered around $31 to $34 during the last three weeks of August. According to Beranek, Hayward reminded Clearfield management that it was executing its growth plan. “That helped us not to get too far over our skis, but also not to doubt ourselves when the market overreacts and doesn’t truly understand our strategy,” she says.
That strategy includes pursuing opportunities in adjacent markets and increasing its North American production to better meet BEAD requirements. Beranek credits Hayward for helping the board and Clearfield focus on a long-term vision—“not what is next but what is two steps forward,” she says. “This has helped give us a nimble orientation—and make sure we don’t get carried away.”
