Thermory USA Names Cristian de Rosa CEO as North American Ambitions Accelerate

Thermory USA has appointed Cristian de Rosa as its new Chief Executive Officer, promoting a territory sales leader into the top job as the Estonian thermowood giant pushes to expand its North American footprint in both building products and sauna materials.

De Rosa joined Thermory in 2024 as Northeast and Great Lakes Building Products Territory Manager. It was not a long tenure before the promotion, but the company says it was long enough. In a press release, Thermory credited de Rosa's "sound judgement, strong work ethic and contagious energy" and said the board had been looking for ways to expand his role.

Challinor Steps Back, Stays Close

De Rosa succeeds Mark Challinor, the co-founder of Thermory USA who had been serving as interim CEO since 2025. Challinor now returns to his role as Chief Financial Officer while also taking on the title of Managing Director and remaining on the board. It is the kind of transition that keeps institutional knowledge in the room while handing the growth mandate to someone newer.

Challinor, whose background includes Coopers & Lybrand Consulting and the U.S. Navy (USS Carl Vinson), has been the steady hand behind Thermory USA since its founding. His public statements have consistently framed Thermory's mission around displacing tropical hardwoods and chemically treated lumber with thermally modified alternatives. That mission has not changed. What has changed is the speed at which Thermory wants to pursue it.

Since he joined Thermory, Cristian has demonstrated sound judgement, a strong work ethic and contagious energy, and the Board of Directors has been looking for a way to increase his role at Thermory USA. Mark Challinor, co-founder and CFO, Thermory USA

Why It Matters for Sauna

Most SaunaNews readers know Thermory as the world's largest producer of thermowood, the material of choice for high-end sauna construction. Thermo-Aspen, Thermo-Magnolia, and Thermo-Alder bench boards and wall panels are staples at serious sauna dealers across North America. The company also produces a line of barrel saunas — all now featuring upper bench configurations — a meaningful upgrade over the single low-bench designs that define most of the entry-level market. Thermory has also deepened its relationship with Homecraft, the Canadian heater maker, and has been actively cultivating the DIY sauna builder segment, which has emerged as one of the fastest-growing buyer categories in North America.

But Thermory's sauna business is only part of the story. The company's cladding, decking, and flooring divisions are the volume drivers, and those divisions are the ones where a territory-focused CEO could make the biggest difference. De Rosa's background is in building products sales, not sauna specifically, which tells you where Thermory sees its highest-leverage growth in the U.S. market. More builders specifying thermowood for exteriors means more builders who know the material when they get asked about sauna projects. It is also the segment where Thermory now faces a newly localized challenger: Lunawood opened a thermowood production mill in Cleveland, Georgia in late 2025 and is pushing a North America Collection built around thermally modified Yellow Poplar and White Ash.

Recent Wins Tell the Story

Thermory has been stacking credentials in the U.S. market. In January 2026, the company announced that Thermory Thermo-Magnolia was selected for the Baltimore Ravens' Under Armour Performance Center renovation, a 20,000-square-foot facility redesign by ZGF Architects that included custom sauna installations, hydrotherapy suites, and a warm wood ceiling inspired by a raven's forest habitat. Custom bench boards were milled off-site for fast installation, helping the facility open ahead of the 2025 NFL season.

Then there is SaferWood with Thermex-FR, Thermory's new ignition-resistant Class A benchmark pine that went to market in early 2026. The product is designed for California's Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones and wildland-urban interface areas, a market segment that has been desperate for real wood options that can pass fire code. It is a shrewd play for a company whose core product, thermally modified wood, was already partway toward fire resistance by virtue of the modification process itself.

Add a continued presence at the International Builders' Show, a growing DIY sauna builder program that puts Thermory materials directly in the hands of owner-builders who want quality wood without a custom contractor markup, and Thermory's Design Awards program recognizing outstanding architectural projects — and you have a company investing across every channel simultaneously.

The Technology Behind the Brand

For readers less familiar with the process: thermal modification is what separates Thermory from every other lumber company. The technique subjects wood to temperatures between 350°F and 430°F in oxygen-free kilns using only heat and steam. No chemicals. No preservatives. No pressure treatments. The process permanently alters the cellular structure of the wood, reducing moisture absorption by up to 60%, dramatically improving dimensional stability, and creating natural resistance to rot, decay, and insect damage.

The result is wood that performs like a tropical hardwood but comes from sustainable European forestry. Thermo-Aspen and Thermo-Magnolia are the go-to bench and wall panel materials for serious sauna builders because they stay cool to the touch under heat, do not splinter, and will not warp in the 180°F-plus environment inside a properly built sauna. Thermo-Alder offers a richer color profile for builders who want warmth in the visual grain. None of these materials off-gas or leach chemicals when heated, a critical distinction from pressure-treated alternatives that have no place inside a sauna room.

Thermory has invested 25 years and multiple generations of kiln technology into refining this process. Their Estonian production facilities are the largest thermowood manufacturing operation in the world. When de Rosa talks about the "foundation" Challinor built, this is a significant part of it: a supply chain that connects massive, purpose-built European manufacturing capacity to an American dealer and builder network that is still learning just how superior thermally modified wood is to the alternatives.

The Bigger Picture

The global thermowood market was valued at roughly $1.2 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $2.5 billion by 2033, growing at a 9.2% CAGR. North America accounts for about 28% of that market. For a company headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia, with manufacturing capacity that dwarfs every other thermowood producer on the planet, the U.S. is the obvious place to push hardest.

Naming a field sales leader as CEO, rather than importing a finance executive or a European transplant, suggests that Thermory's priorities in the U.S. are about relationships, distribution, and market share. De Rosa knows the dealers. He knows the territory managers. He knows the builders who are specifying thermowood for the first time. That is the kind of knowledge that matters when you are trying to grow a category, not just protect a position.

We are bringing in a new kind of energy and competitiveness, and we have the right people to do it. We have an outstanding team full of knowledge, ideas, and grit. Cristian de Rosa, CEO, Thermory USA

Thermory appointing a territory sales leader as its U.S. CEO is a bet on growth through distribution and relationships rather than top-down management. For the sauna industry, the signal is clear: the world's biggest thermowood company thinks the North American market is just getting started. Every sauna dealer who stocks Thermory materials should be paying attention to what comes next.