There’s change blowing in the wind for Savage Arms. After more than 25 years in leadership roles at Savage Arms, Al Kasper is leaving the company’s CEO role. Chris Bezzina, another longtime insider, will take over the job effective December 31, 2023.

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Kasper originally came to Savage Arms as Chief Financial Officer. He oversaw some big changes at the company. Perhaps the most notable move was the sale of the company in 2019. Kasper was president and CEO at that point when Vista Outdoors sold Savage Arms to Long Range Acquisition LLC, an investment group that included Kasper himself. Following his departure from the CEO chair at the end of 2023, he will still remain a member of Savage’s board of directors, so his influence will very much remain in the company’s decisions.

Al Kasper (R) is going to remain on the board of directors at Savage Arms as Bezzina (L) takes over the CEO role. (Savage Arms)

Bezzina’s promotion to the role of big boss is most interesting, as he started with a very hands-on role. He’s been with Savage Arms since 2007 when he joined as leader of the engineering team. Savage Arms was making some major overhauls to its lineup at that point, including the introduction of AccuStock, the Axis rifle (back then, it was called the Edge) and the A17 semi-auto rimfire rifle. These developments made up a big part of Savage’s reputation for affordable accuracy through the 2010s.

Where will Bezzina take things from here? It’s worth noting that while Savage still produces the Axis and other affordable rifles, it’s also selling more pricey products like the Renegauge gas-operated shotgun or the Impulse straight-pull bolt-action platform, or even an in-house version of the classic 1911 handgun platform. As we move into the mid-2020s, it looks like the Stevens brand is once again going to be a foundation of the company’s plans, selling lower-priced firearms brought in from overseas while the Savage name emblazons firearms with higher price tags.

No surprise there; that’s how the company historically did business. On his part, Bezzina says “As the new leader of this organization, I look forward to continuing the momentum Al helped create, driving Savage to be an industry leader in innovative technologies, and expanding upon our best-in-class manufacturing capabilities.”