
Randy Ahuja
Professional Experience
Randy Ahuja is a senior global executive with extensive experience leading special situations with multinational exposures at several Fortune 500 companies. He has conducted business in six continents giving him a unique global perspective and solid understanding of the multicultural elements that influence business decisions worldwide.
Prior to Verto, Randy served as the Chief Financial Officer of Nissan’s Global Electric Vehicle Battery Business headquartered in Japan and led a realignment of the battery strategy to capitalize on evolving market trends. In Japan, he also served as General Manager for Nissan’s Corporate Strategy Group developing and managing initiatives to ensure Nissan’s successful navigation through the global financial crisis. In addition, he led strategic alliance and emerging market activities including negotiating agreements to manufacture vehicles in Russia.
Prior to joining Nissan, he held leadership positions at General Motors, including the New York Treasurer’s Office Troubled Suppliers group where he developed strategies to protect GM from negative repercussions of the American steel industry bankruptcies. He also earned 3 Chairman’s awards for contributions to highly strategic initiatives including liquidation of a 20,000 employee global powertrain joint venture headquartered in Italy, formation of a technology company owning all of GM’s global intellectual property, and participation in the execution of a $17.8 billion global bond issuance.
Randy started his automotive career in Canada working in Labor Relations at a Ford Motor Company assembly plant. He also managed Employee Relations at a copper smelter and refinery, and worked as a mill production operator in a gold mine.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Randy earned an MBA from Columbia University, a Master of Industrial Relations from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Science Honours from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. He has also continued his personal development through executive education courses at the University of Chicago. He has been a guest speaker at universities and business group forums. Randy is fluent in Hindi.
Professional Experience
Mary-Beth Anthony began her career with Beber Silverstein Advertising in Miami as a media buyer, planner and supervisor responsible for major accounts such as Helmsley/Harley Hotels, Norwegian Cruise Line, Turnberry Isle, Southern Cross Yachts, and Austin Rover Cars. She went on to account management and supervised clients such as the Florida Division of Tourism, Carnival’s Crystal Palace Resort and Casino/Bahamas, Bonaventure Spa, Fountainebleu Hilton and Jackson Memorial Medical Center, one of the country’s top hospitals. She was on the board of directors of the Advertising Federation of Greater Miami and served as chair of the most successful ADDY awards in its history.
She moved to the client side of the business as Advertising Supervisor for the southern half of the United States for Mercedes-Benz of North America, where she developed the first multi-media ad campaign in the key Hispanic markets of South Florida, Texas, Arizona and Puerto Rico and developed key micro-marketing multi-media events. She opened two casinos for Circus Circus Enterprises (now MGM), the largest gaming organization in the world. As Director of Advertising for Luxor Las Vegas, she was responsible for start-up operations that included strategic development, advertising, promotions, and international diplomacy (Egyptian Ambassador and renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass attended the opening of Luxor). At Circus Circus Mississippi, she was Director of Marketing, Entertainment and Retail Operations.
She has worked as a marketing consultant on strategic respositioning of a public cable TV company, development of internet marketing strategy and site development for a professional recording media company and local fund raisers. She has worked with an international promotional products firm and an international retail producer and distributor of private label organizer bags. Mary-Beth has been teaching in one of the southeastern region’s most well respected private schools for the past four years, providing compelling discussions and critical thinking from her students by incorporating real world knowledge and events.
Mary-Beth has been involved with international print, television and radio, sales videos, collateral materials and high-tech multi-media shows. Her experience includes travel and corporate international marketing within Europe, Latin America, Asia, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean.
She is a member of the American Advertising Federation/Raleigh/Durham Chapter and the Board Education Chair-woman for 2013-2014 and a member of ISES/International Special Events Society/Greater Triangle Chapter.
Most recently, she continued her education and received certificates in event management from Duke University and social media marketing management from Chatham Community College/Martin Brossman & Associates.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Mary-Beth has a BBA in International Finance and Marketing from the University of Miami and a Master of International Management from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management.
An avid interest in the outdoors includes snow skiing, scuba diving, golf, horseback riding, tennis and shooting sporting clays with her 12-gauge shotgun. Community service includes time with the Conservators Center, a rescue facility for lions, tigers, keystone species, wolves and other wild mammals and support of the Alzheimers Association.
She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her extended family that includes her husband, two teenage boys, two Labrador retriever hunting dogs, and a Maine Coon cat.
Professional Experience
Pete Bassi is a Managing Director/Partner of Verto Partners. He was the Chairman and President of Yum Restaurants International (YRI), overseeing all activities associated with the International Restaurant Division of Yum, including more than 12,000 KFC (leads McDonalds in Korea, China, Thailand, Malaysia), Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants spread over approximately 100 countries. Under Pete’s tenure, Yum opened more than 1,100 new units annually with system sales of approximately $10 billion.
Pete held other senior executive positions at YRI, including Executive Vice President and CFO. He was also CFO of Taco Bell, where he personally negotiated several key acquisitions as Pepsico was fostering a restaurant diversification strategy. Under his tenure, Taco Bell emerged from a niche Mexican food player to a powerful chain fueled by leading the industry with value initiatives. Pete also held a number of officer positions at Frito-Lay and Pizza Hut, as well as numerous planning roles at Pepsi-Cola U.S. and Pepsi-Cola International.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Pete currently serve on the Board of Directors for BJ’s Restaurants Inc. and Potbelly’s. He was previously on the Board of Directors of The Pep Boys and El Pollo Loco. He received his BS in Mathematics and MBA in Finance from the University of Rhode Island.
Professional Experience
Martin Bell has been providing valuation, financial modeling, corporate development, M&A advisory, due diligence, and forensic accounting services to large, medium, and small companies for more than 20 years. He has worked closely with senior C-level management on a pre and post-acquisition basis. In addition to working with Verto Partners, Martin has worked in the U.S. and abroad as an independent consultant and as a senior member of the following international organizations: Deloitte, Navigant Consulting, and American Appraisal Associates, Inc.
Martin’s consulting experience encompasses a unique mix of purposes/uses including: mergers and acquisitions (advisory, valuation and due diligence); corporate divestitures; strategic planning; privatization; financing; real estate development; feasibility studies; economic loss compensation; litigation support; insurance; intellectual property infringement and divestiture; fraud detection; investigative retrospective deal analysis; shareholder dispute analysis; financial reporting; tax planning; compliance; and business development.
In addition to working with U.S. private and public corporations, Martin also has extensive experience working with international companies in the U.S. and abroad including: Spain; Hungary; Czech Republic; Russia; Slovakia; Slovenia; Italy; France; Germany; Austria; United Kingdom; Ukraine; Kazakhstan; Japan; Trinidad and Tobago; and Brazil. In the mid to late 1990’s, he led the start-up and initial management of American Appraisal Associates, Inc.’s operations in the Czech Republic and Russia (with the latter continuing to be one of the company’s most successful and profitable operating units worldwide).
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
For his undergraduate studies, Martin attended the University of Arizona and University of Wisconsin-Madison (graduated from the latter in 1986 – member of the rugby team at both schools). He received an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1996 (first graduating class for the school’s International Executive Program – launched in Barcelona, Spain in 1994).
Professional Experience
Randy has more than 20 years of experience supporting private equity funds and small to mid-sized clients as hands-on C-level and senior management, functional area expert in finance, operations, sales and marketing, as well as business development and M&A. He has deployed to and advised the boards of both domestic and international portfolio companies.
In the area of Private Equity and M&A, Randy has been involved in raising over $100 million for PE investments. As part of the founding group at DirecPath, they raised $65 million of equity capital from Hicks Holdings, DirecTV, and pension funds. He then led the M&A team in successfully negotiating and closing purchase agreements, and managing all aspects of the legal, financial, and operational due diligence process, and successfully closed 5 acquisitions in the first year of operations. In 2004, he helped raise US$50 million for Fluviomar S.A. from Darby Overseas Investments, Cargill Value Investments, Exim Bank to fund and create the 2nd largest barge operator on the Parana river system based out of Argentina. Post funding – Assisted in the acquisition of 2 other operators in Paraguay & Brazil, sourcing and purchasing of over $30 million in capital equipment, establishing policies and procedures, selection and implementation of an ERP/financial systems required to support the growing operation. At Citicorp Equity Investment. he was part of the mergers & acquisitions teams involved in over $2 billion in transactions for CATV, Media, Telecommunications and Internet assets during 1997-98. Partners included TCI International (TINTA), and Telefonica Internacional (TISA). Acquisitions included: (Torneos y Competencias, Pramer, Canal 9, Editorial Atlantida, Cablevision, VCC, Supercanal, Mandeville and various internet companies).
As an operating partner Randy’s corporate performance experience spans several industries and companies ranging from $10 – $500 million in revenue. In the last 4 years he has helped develop and implement a supplier management program for the largest publicly traded property management company (FSRV); as interim CFO, he steered a small company through 40% annual growth rates, increased operating margins and brought the company to sale by a strategic buyer, and recently turned around a mid-sized portfolio company for a private equity fund. He worked with Hicks Muse Tate and Furst (HMTF), a leading private equity firm, as an executive at Davivo Management Group, serving as an operating partner where he led implementation teams for ERP, billing and customer care systems and corporate IT infrastructure projects for their portfolio companies in Latin America. Randy was also the Regional Sales Director of Latin America for Kenan Systems, an enterprise billing and customer software solutions, responsible for enterprise software solution sales and corporate partnerships/alliances for the Latin America, Spain & Portugal markets. He successfully drove sales from $17 million to $70 million. The company was sold to Lucent Technology S.A. in 1999 for $1.4 billion over 4× revenue.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Randy is on the Advisory Council for Take Stock in Children, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing mentorship and scholarships for low-income at-risk children in Florida. He earned both an undergraduate degree and MBA from Stanford University. He was a four-time US National Team member and NCAA All-American in men’s gymnastics.
Professional Experience
Don Bibeault, is one of the nation’s leading turnaround practitioners. He is the first-ever recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for corporate turnarounds from the Turnaround Management Association, the highest honor bestowed by the turnaround industry peers and experts. Don created the established frameworks for the underperforming company segment and is widely regarded as one of the world’s experts on strategy and investment returns in the context of underperformance.
During a turnaround career that has spanned more than forty years, he has served as Chairman, CEO, or Chief Operating Officer of numerous corporations, including Pacific States Steel, PLM International, Best Pipe and Steel, Inc., Ironstone Group, Inc., American National Petroleum, Inc., Tyler-Dawson Supply, Iron Oak Supply Corporation and Bsquare Corporation. He was the special turnaround advisor to the CEOs of Silicon Graphics Inc., Varity Corporation (formerly Massey Ferguson), and Yipes Networks. He has been a portfolio company board director and corporate performance advisor to many of the nation’s premier private equity firms such as TA Associates, and he has also been a special workout advisor to Bank of America, as well as the resident corporate performance improvement and turnaround expert for a leading global fund.
His best-selling book, Corporate Turnaround: How Managers Turn Losers Into Winners!, has been in print for thirty years and is widely regarded as the leading text in the field of turnaround management.
Virtually no other practitioner has both the sustained operating track record and major contributions to the intellectual capital of the turnaround industry. The conceptual framework for turnarounds—first articulated in his Ph.D. dissertation and later popularized in his best-selling book—set the stage for the growth of the professional field of turnaround management. They make up a large portion of the Certified Turnaround Professional Management Body of Knowledge curriculum.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Don served as a commissioned officer in the US Army Combat Engineers during the Vietnam war. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rhode Island, an MBA from Columbia University, a Juris Doctor (honoris causa) and PhD from Golden Gate University. He has been a member of the Board of Overseers of Columbia Business School, was a trustee of Golden Gate University and is a member of the University of Rhode Island Business Advisory Board. Don was a Founding Director of the Turnaround Management Association and is amongst only a handful of practitioners worldwide to earn the designation CTP Emeritus.
Professional Experience
Greg Calaman has two decades of company-building experience creating value at the nexus of lifesciences, healthcare, and technology. Before partnering with Duncan Steels and then recently bringing the firm together with Verto, Greg founded Wavelength Strategies – a transformations consulting firm that became a “go to” resource for public and private life sciences and technology companies, investment banks, and private investors in need of a different approach from that of traditional management consultants. At Wavelength, Greg provided strategic and commercial operations advice to the C-suite of a leading biorepository/personalized medicine company, strategic globalization guidance to the CIO of a major public generic pharmaceutical company on the heels of a multi-billion dollar acquisition, recruited and placed members of the executive team of a rising bioinformation systems company, and led the requirements specification and initial construction of a new business process and system to mitigate a multi-billion dollar commercial operations compliance risk for one of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies.
Prior to Wavelength, Greg served as North American VP & GM for venture-backed lifesciences software company Definiens AG where he built the North American operation. At Pfizer, he reported to the CTO, and led and assisted in strategic re-engineering programs including support of several multi-billion dollar acquisitions and divestitures, the elimination of three quarters of a billion dollars in operating expense, and the elimination of a potentially catastrophic business continuity risk.
Earlier, Greg founded and ran iArmor, a health-tech venture to improve the lives of at-risk populations of outpatients with cardiovascular disease and to establish a new platform for therapeutic compliance and clinical trial support. Greg also served as regional services director for and built a services business at BEA Systems, earned his “top 8 firm” consulting qualifications working on large scale life sciences re-engineering projects at Computer Sciences Corporation, and served as a leader in the technology organization at leading investment bank Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette. Greg began his career as a surface warfare officer in the US Navy.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Greg holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering/Astro Concentration from the US Naval Academy and some Wharton Executive Education. He serves on the Advisory Council to Executive Education at Drexel University.
Professional Experience
Patricio Casillas has US and international management experience, primarily in the Life Sciences industry. He’s built, developed and led high caliber organizations ranging from startup enterprises to PE-backed portfolio companies and has spearheaded business units within Fortune 100 companies.
Patricio is an alumni of Johnson & Johnson’s leadership program and he spent the early part of his career with Eli Lilly & Company. His foundational sales, marketing and strategy background combined with his strong P&L management and operations experience have allowed Patricio to generate significant value for shareholders. He has launched multiple $100M to $1B products and has generated millions in cost savings for companies.
He is relentless about finding big, needle movers for top line growth and operational efficiency. Idea generation and creative thinking starts with deep customer empathy. Patricio is fanatical about behavioral science and understanding customer attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. He is a purveyor of design thinking and similar innovative thinking concepts that are process-driven and teachable. He is practitioner of continuous improvement / six sigma lean management concepts and is versed in robotic process automation.
Ultimately, Patricio is focused on how to best deliver transformational growth.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Patricio holds a BS in Biology from Duke and MBA from Stanford.
Professional Experience
Timur Colak has a 16 year track record of success as an international performance improvement consultant and business manager. He has helped small, medium and large companies improve bottom line results and cash flow in a variety of industries including consumer packaged goods, travel and entertainment, industrials and transportation. Prior to joining Verto Partners, Mr. Colak managed results-driven projects for a variety of Fortune 1000 companies while at McKinsey & Company and WKI. He has held management positions and served clients with strategic as well as operational challenges including overhead reduction, sourcing, product proliferation, international expansion, organizational structure and revenue enhancement.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Mr. Colak received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Stanford University and a Master of Management degree from The J.L.Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, with honors. He has lived and worked extensively in the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia and is fluent in Turkish, Spanish and French.
Professional Experience
Skilled Industrial Engineer, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Senior Consultant with experience in operations leadership, turnarounds, delivering projects with high return on investment and creating powerful portrayals of data to drive decision support.
Jared is highly motivated to deliver results to organizations by reducing complexity, creating and delivering different types of solutions (Interim Leadership, Lean, Six Sigma, Layout Optimization, 5S, Kaizen Events, Automation, Programming, Dashboards, Business Process Reengineering, etc) and installing systems of sustainability so gears are still in motion post implementation. Jared has experience end-to-end; from receipt of raw materials to the movement of product through the supply chain, to corporate finance and analysis.
Jared has experience in process improvement and leadership in varying industry types, including: manufacturing, food processing (USDA, SQF, BRC, AIB, HACCP, etc), retail chains, IT and business intelligence (BI), fashion, merchandising, aerospace, marine operations, finance, supply chain and logistics.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Jared finished his undergraduate work in Industrial and System’s Engineering from The Ohio State University and is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt working on his Master Black Belt. Jared is active in supporting Ohio State’s Lean Sigma department and serves on the certification review board. Jared is also an active member of IIE (Institute for Industrial Engineers).
Professional Experience
Harry Gray is a broadly-skilled executive with a unique range of general management, strategy, operations and finance capabilities. He has been a middle-market President/CEO, COO, CFO and large cap Board-level Advisor for investment firms such as Goldman Sachs Capital, UBS Capital, Arcapita, Hanseatic Capital, MB Financial and TA Associates. He has also been a private equity professional, investment banker and M&A specialist at leading global firms.
Harry is a Managing Director and Co-founder at Verto Partners. The firm’s professionals have provided corporate strategy, operational improvement and management best practices advice to clients such as Kleiner Perkins, CS First Boston, Bass Family, Technology Crossover Ventures, JMI Equity, GE Capital, Hambrecht & Quist and NEA Associates. The Verto team includes Fortune 500 CEOs, Big Four partners, and McKinsey, Bain and BCG alumni. Harry was also Managing Director at RKG Osnos, the nation’s oldest corporate performance advisory firm.
Harry was a private equity professional at Highland Capital, a $35 billion global investment firm. His responsibilities included governance, strategy development, corporate finance, and talent hiring, as well as hands-on deployment to spearhead growth and profitability initiatives and execute comprehensive portfolio company transformations.
Harry was an investment banker at two leading firms; first at Alex Brown & Sons, the nation’s oldest investment bank, and then as a Vice President at Wasserstein Perella & Co., a premier mergers and acquisitions firm. His experiences included corporate strategy, M&A, valuation and fairness opinions, restructurings, and public and private capital markets transactions.
Harry’s profit/loss leadership began in the US Navy, where he was head of numerous large operations encompassing logistics and procurement, food service, retailing and grocery, lodging and hospitality, and fleet and fuel management. In addition to specific combat-line responsibilities, he was a US Treasury Agent by way of a federal disbursing officer appointment, as well as a US Postal Officer and certified contracting officer. He was promoted early to Senior Supply Officer and handpicked for the US Navy’s elite warship construction program at General Dynamics.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Harry is a graduate of the US Naval Academy (BS) and Columbia Business School (MBA), where he was a Bibeault Scholar. He is a Resident Fellow of The University of Texas at Dallas, where he lectures on corporate transformations. He has provided expert testimony on corporate performance improvement, as well as guest presentations to the Harvard Business School Club, Technology Entrepreneurs Exchange (TeXchange) and Financial Executives International (FEI).
Professional Experience
Chad Greenway has been involved in troubled company situations as a professional in numerous capacities, ranging from parachute executive and hands-on crisis manager to debtor-side and board-level advisor to principal investor for the past decade. His experiences not only span the continuum of distressed venues, from crisis and cash preservation to underperformance and growth acceleration, but he has also provided strategic, financial and capital markets advisory support to the boards of numerous public and private companies, ranging from early-stage and middle market growth companies to the Fortune 1000. Chad has been a corporate performance and restructuring advisor to leading private equity firms such as TA Associates, JMI Equity and Technology Crossover Ventures, including a parachute executive for TA Associates. He has also provided Adjunct-CFO leadership to distressed clients.
Chad was a Principal at MHT Partners, L.P., a leading middle-market-focused merchant bank founded by Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette (DLJ) and McKinsey veterans. He was also an investment and restructuring banker at Wasserstein Perella & Co., a premier merger, acquisitions and restructuring investment bank. His experiences at Wasserstein Perella included corporate strategy, takeover defense, special committee advice, public, private and distressed M&A, fairness opinions, as well as public and private capital markets transactions. His restructuring scope was broad, including comprehensive board-level strategic and financial advisory services for a number of firms, including global conglomerates such as McDermott International and Halliburton as they negotiated complex multi-billion dollar asbestos liability settlements. Chad’s responsibilities included the formation of strategic alternatives for clients, implementation of takeover defense strategies, providing extensive valuation expertise for a wide range of industries and complex transactions and formulating capital markets recommendations for public and private clients.
Chad began his career in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Banc of America Securities, providing board-level advice to a number of clients on strategy, buy-side, sell-side and private placement transactions as well as transaction fairness opinions. His clients included a range of publicly-traded and privately-held industrial companies.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
He is a graduate of Texas Christian University, where he earned a B.B.A. in Finance and Accounting. He also was sponsored by Wasserstein Perella at INSEAD University in Fontainebleau, France.
Professional Experience
Bill Hass is a Certified Turnaround Professional, a past National Chairman of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA), and recipient of the TMA’s Outstanding Individual Contribution Award. Bill was instrumental in developing TMA international’s Troubled Loan Workout Program.
Bill has more than 25 years of experience with turnaround and strategy clients, including both healthy and distressed Fortune 500 companies, such as Allstate Insurance, Baxter International, LTV, National Steel, Continental Airlines, as well as a variety of smaller public and privately-held companies such as Jiffy Lube, Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel, Florida Steel, Cross & Trecker, and Specialty Equipment. Bill’s industry experience is broad based and includes retailers and consumer and industrial manufacturers such as: valve manufacturers, mini-mills, homebuilders, publishers, newspapers, automotive suppliers, machine tools and electronics.
Bill is CEO of TeamWork Technologies, a consulting and research firm in Chicago. Prior to launching TeamWork Technologies, Bill’s consulting career spanned work at two of the Big Four accounting firms, including Partner at Ernst & Young, where he was a leader in both the Special Services, Strategy and Restructuring Groups. He focuses on turnaround strategies, failure prediction, strategic options analysis and valuation, corporate renewal and dramatic change. Bill co-authored Building Value Through Strategy, Risk Assessment and Renewal (600 pages, 2006, CCH) and The Private Equity Edge: How Private Equity Players and the World’s Top Companies Build Value and Wealth (440 pages, 2009, McGraw-Hill). He is a frequent contributor to The Journal of Corporate Renewal and The Journal of Private Equity.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Bill earned an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago’s Booth Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Engineering Systems Analysis and Operations Research with Highest Honors from the University of Illinois-Chicago. He is a former director of the University of Illinois Alumni Association and Chairman of the College of Engineering Industrial Advisory Board. He served as Director and VP Education of the Association of Certified Turnaround Professionals. He is also an inventor with US and Foreign Patents.
Professional Experience
Richard (Dick) Lindenmuth has been a corporate performance advisor and Chief Executive Officer in a number of industries, with business models ranging from high-technology and services to heavy- and basic-industries. He has more than 30 years general management experience in domestic and international operations, and he is noted for his comprehensive execution skills in both high-growth and distressed environments.
Dick has advised many of the nation’s premiere private equity and investment firms. For Highland Capital Management, one of the world’s largest distressed investment funds, he was a primary crisis manager and corporate performance executive. Dick has served as CEO for more than ten companies and corporate performance advisor to numerous others. A short list of his executive roles includes Amcast Corporation, Quantegy and number of corporate performance leadership positions for global banks and private equity firms.
Dick’s corporate leadership experiences are broad and international. He began his career at the Singer Sewing Machine Company in treasury and international finance, where he advanced rapidly to General Manager of The Middle East and Africa. He was also the Director of International Operations for Bendix Automotive, where he helped spearhead industry-changing joint ventures, such as RENEX (Renault and Bendix) and brake manufacturing operations in Korea for Hyundai before the Hyundai automobiles were imported into the USA. He also forged the acquired technology companies that were part of Burroughs (now Unisys) into one strategic unit.
He was President of ITT’s Business and Consumer Communications Group, where he led 20,000 employees through rapid deregulation and grew the revenues four fold to record profitably in record time. After his successful turnaround at ITT, the company was sold and is now part of Alcatel.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
He is an avid athlete, having played college football and achieving a black belt in several martial arts. He enjoys flying, and occasionally volunteers as a licensed commercial pilot for Piedmont Aviation. Dick speaks fluent Italian and French and is conversational in other languages, which he acquired throughout his multi-decade international career.
Dick earned his MBA at the Wharton School and is a US Navy Veteran.
Professional Experience
Dick Redden is a nationally recognized turnaround expert, with more than 40 years experience in operations, marketing, and finance, and a very successful track record of general and interim management, profit improvement and strategic repositioning in numerous companies.
Dick has been the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Operating Officer of two Fortune 500 companies and has led more than twenty successful crisis-to profitability turnarounds as “Turnaround CEO” in nine industries. He has also served as board-level adjunct to the CEO or Chief Restructuring Officer in the reorganization and return-to-profitability of twelve companies in seven industries, including portfolio companies of leading investment firms such as Highland Capital. Throughout his career in turnaround advisory, Dick has spearheaded a number of successful corporate divestures.
Dick has been sought after repeatedly for his governance on the board of both public and private companies, including directorship of seventeen companies in packaging, banking, real-estate, textiles, apparel, plastics, medical services, consumer products, telecommunications, and civic and charity organizations.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
In his early career, he founded, grew and sold a successful textile and apparel company. He is an engineering graduate of North Carolina State University. As a regular Army officer and Distinguished Military Graduate in the US Army, he was in a number of combat units and received the Bronze Star in Vietnam.
Professional Experience
Jeff has over 25 years of experience in strategic planning, business development, regional and national operations, market analysis, marketing, and product/service development. Jeff’s career has been mainly focused on healthcare services and technology and can be defined as entrepreneurial, having been involved as a founder or on the founding teams of six ventured capital backed start-up companies, a consultant to numerous start-up and middle market companies and an advisor to an early stage ventured capital firm.
Most recently, Jeff was the founder and Vice President of the Corporate Wellness division of Eat Right America, a nutrition and technology company that was recently acquired by Whole Foods Market, Inc. Prior to Eat Right America, Jeff was Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development of Delphi Health Systems, a diabetes technology and physician specialty network company that developed a patented diabetes patient management technology for physicians. He was also the founder and President of Argus Healthcare, a veterinary telemedicine service company with a global network of specialists. Prior to that, Jeff served as a roaming executive working with numerous portfolio companies of a technology focused venture capital fund, where he eventually took a permanent position as Vice President of Business Development with a portfolio company (Vertrax, Inc.) focused on providing logistic and route planning software to the heating oil and propane delivery markets.
While serving as Vice President of Strategic Planning at Kelson Pediatric Partners, the largest ambulatory pediatric company in the U.S. that provided healthcare services to over 600,000 children, Jeff founded a company that developed a CRM application for pediatric practices. The company was spun off and was successfully merged with a healthcare technology firm. Jeff has served on founding senior management teams for MedPartners (NYSE:CMX), where he managed a strategic planning department that serviced over 1,500 physicians; PrincipalCare, a woman’s healthcare company where he helped the company grow from five physicians in one market to 80 in five markets prior to its sale; Aesthetics Medical Management, an aesthetic plastic surgery center company where he was Chief Marketing Officer and was responsible for the development and marketing of regional plastic surgery centers; and Xtramedics, a woman’s healthcare product company where he managed all of its test market research and product rollouts before it was successfully merged with a publicly traded company.
Jeff lives in Connecticut with his wife and daughter. Over the past 10 years he has been very involved with the Angel Charitable Trust which sponsors the AngelRide, an annual weekend bike ride that has raised over $4,000,000 for the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp’s Hospital Outreach Program. Jeff has also served as a board member or trustee for other not for profit organizations focused on the wellbeing of children, healthcare access, and other social issues.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Jeff earned a BBA in Marketing from the University of Kentucky, where he was also a member of the Cross Country and Track teams, and a MS in Demography from The Florida State University.
Professional Experience
William S. Russell’s most recent positions have been in the role of Chief Operating Officer for Primary Management Resources (PMR), a consulting company in the healthcare field specializing in IT conversions and overall transformations of healthcare clinics, and for Take Stock in Children (TSIC), a Florida-based non-profit organization, which helps low-income children succeed in life by providing college scholarships and other long-term support. Dr. Russell’s responsibilities included short- and long-term strategy, managing corporate office operations including finances, information technology and HR in addition to field operations in dozens of client locations.
Dr. Russell also has experience as a consultant at McKinsey & Company where he gained expertise in generating and evaluating strategic options for Fortune 500 clients, developing and implementing business-building strategies, building and refining business models, assessing market and competitive landscapes, and developing rigorous financial models focusing on budget management and cost-reduction strategies.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Dr. Russell spent 8 years as an academic on the faculty of Columbia University in New York and the University of California, Berkeley. He worked alongside NASA scientists on a daily basis on cutting edge mathematical-computational modeling. Dr. Russell holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia and a B.Sc. (with Honors) in Mathematics from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland.
Dr. Russell is also a former international athlete having played for, captained, and coached the USA National Rugby Team. He is also a founding member of the board of Play Rugby USA, the national youth rugby organization in the USA.
John C. Stuecheli
Professional Experience
Mr. Stuecheli brings over 25 years of broad experience in working for and consulting with companies facing the challenges of growth and financial re-structuring. Before joining Vertopartners, Stuecheli provided financial and operational advice for Phoenix Management Services, Wimmer Associates and Buccino & Associates. During the most recent five years, he has served in interim CFO and Chapter 11 advisory positions.
From October 2008 to January 2009, Stuecheli was interim CFO for Texas based general aviation airplane manufacturer; coordinated downsizing and shutdown of operations in response to severe downturn in single engine airplane sales.
From February 2009 to January 2010; Stuecheli was Financial Advisor to Houston-based commercial lumber company. His initial role was to stabilize cash flow and search for a replacement working capital lender. Because of a slow recovery in housing market, he continued as financial advisor in a Chapter 11 reorganization resulting in family owners maintaining ownership of downsized operation and 100% payment to lenders and trade creditors.
From August 2010 to May 2012; he was Interim CFO for Atlanta-based $80 million electronic parts distributor. In addition to regular financial management responsibilities he assisted the CEO and other senior management with planning and implementation of operational and capital restructuring to include delisting as a public company, conversion of senior debt to equity, elimination of sub debt and consolidation of three divisions. He coordinated his financial responsibilities with outside professionals including attorneys, accountants and valuation firms.
Mr. Stuecheli has extensive bankruptcy experience. His roles have included providing financial advice to debtors, sale of companies as going concerns and expert witness testimony in Court for debtors and creditors. Specifically, he was an expert witness for a large European bank in a Delaware case involving a collateral valuation issue. He was a financial advisor to a Virginia based lumber treatment operation, a $60 million Oklahoma carpet mill and a Texas based chain of home improvement stores. He also served as financial advisor to a Texas based $20 million mail order operation through a Chapter 11 Reorganization resulting in a 100% payout to all creditors.
Several of his clients were family owned businesses in need of assistance as they faced an economic downturn. In addition to the financial aspects of the business, he advised these clients on management succession issues.
Earlier, Mr. Stuecheli was the director of financial planning and acquisitions for Intelogic Trace, Inc., a $250 million computer service company. His financial and administrative responsibilities included identification of potential acquisition candidates, financial modeling, due diligence and integration of acquired companies in addition to ongoing budget and financial analysis.
Prior to Intelogic Trace, Mr. Stuecheli held several positions with Datapoint Corporation, a computer manufacturer. While at Datapoint, he participated in several operational reviews and cost containment programs in response to severe revenue losses.
Mr. Stuecheli has held financial positions with Nordson Corporation, a multinational special equipment manufacturer. He joined the company as General Accounting Manager and advanced to Controller of the Packaging and Assembly Division, which had sales of $80 million. During his tenure with Nordson, the company grew from $22 million to $150 million in revenue.
Mr. Stuecheli began his career at Ernst & Young, and progressed to the position of Audit Senior, with in-charge responsibility for audits of medium-size manufacturing companies.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Mr. Stuecheli graduated from the University of Akron with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting.
Professional Experience
Lance P. Wimmer’s career spans Board of Director and CEO roles, corporate planning and strategy, M&A and finance in a cross-section of business environments that include Booz, Allen & Hamilton, US Steel, Swift Foods and Lenox China as well as a multitude of middle market companies. He holds graduate degrees in engineering and business.
Lance was Founder and Managing Director of Wimmer Associates, Inc. and recently affiliated with Verto Partners. Wimmer Associates was formed in 1998 to assist Boards of Directors, equity firms and management teams by significantly enhancing the shareholder value. Early engagements involved raising over $45 million to fund businesses in electronics, health care, communications, retail, and other industries.
Previously Lance managed the Southwest Region for a leading national restructuring consulting firm. His assignments included lead responsibility as CEO for viability analysis, market and product strategy, operations restructuring plans and improvements, cash flow enhancement and refinancing. He also led operations teams that assisted management with successful negotiations with secured and unsecured creditors, unions, and new investors. He built relationships with major lending institutions including Citicorp, Bank of America/LaSalle, JPMorgan Chase, CIT, Wells Fargo/Wachovia, Merrill Lynch and Prudential among others.
Since then, Lance has gained a reputation for the development and application of simple, yet incisive analytical methodologies that get results. Engagements have included management leadership and advisory roles in a wide variety of industries including manufacturing, automotive/trucking, food processing, distribution, consumer goods, retail, franchising and business services.
read more...Lance has been “hands-on” in over 50 client engagements. A sampling follows:
- $500 million CompuAdd, CRO, engaged by owner; Wells Fargo as agent for three banks; required taking into Chapter 11 to shed leases of an ill-fated retail operation; restructured and exited; banks exited whole and owner retained a majority equity position.
- $250 million Blackman & Mooring, flood & fire disaster restoration company, CRO advisory, engaged by owners; Bank of America commercial loan on the “watch list”; defined and implemented a successful strategic redirection of this consumer services company; BofA retained the credit and owners retained their position.
- $275 million Warren Electric, distributor, BofA advisory role, underperforming commercial loan; made sweeping operations change recommendations related to severly obsolete inventory; changes unheeded and collateral deteriorated over 8 months; funding was ceased and bank exited whole; company liquidated.
- $250 million Crowley Milner, CEO, Schotenstein-owned 40 location department store chain, engaged by Board of Directors to assess and then installed as CEO; chain liquidated and sold
- $150 million Scholl Forest Industries, BofA advisory role; we guided Scholl Forest Industries, a Houston based home building products distributor, through the 2008-2009 declining housing cycle. By expediently implementing cost reductions the Company was able to manage cash resources and avoid liquidity problems. Critical decisions were recommended to “mothball” a division of the company and drastically reduce operations of another division to conserve cash in order to rebuild the business when the housing industry would stabilize and revive. Management implemented these decisions, paid down its asset based secured loan and retained its facilities and continues to operate in a substantially reduced capacity.
- $100 million injection molded products, CEO advisory, engaged by owner; worked with management to define and implement executive leadership management changes and a strategic re-direction…existing lender refinanced the company and owners retained their equity stake.
- $100 million IT staffing company, CRO, appointed by the Board of Directors and owner, strategic re-focusing of the business to improve gross margins, settled legal actions of disgruntled terminated employees, developed and maintained the 90 day cash model, secured replacement lenders, hired replacement management team; company has survived and thrived and the owner’s enterprise value was restored.
As President of $4.2 billion Swift Independent Corporation, a leading food and distribution LBO, he successfully managed the cash flow enhancement, organizational development and strategic re-direction of the company. He later played a lead role with the equity sponsor in negotiating Swift’s sale for over seven times the original LBO purchase price in just 3½ years.
Prior to that, Lance was Vice President, Marketing of Curtis Mathes Corporation, a privately held $300 million manufacturer and retailer of televisions and electronics products. There he focused on strategy implementation, marketing, and new product development, while converting the company to a retail franchise system. He had responsibility for 650 retail locations nationwide.
Before Curtis Mathes, Lance was with Lenox, Inc., a leading manufacturer and marketer of consumer goods. Over a period of eight years, he was President and General Manager of three Lenox subsidiaries. He implemented a company-wide strategic planning system that led to dramatic improvements in growth and profitability and a four-fold increase in the company’s stock price. He led the acquisition effort and became President of Keepsake, a leading diamond jewelry manufacturer, distributor and franchise retailer.
Lance began his career with U.S. Steel in financial planning, and later joined Booz, Allen & Hamilton to assist clients in both industrial and consumer markets in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and general management consulting.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Lance received both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University. Later, he attended Carnegie-Mellon University as a U.S. Steel Fellow, where he earned a Master of Science degree in Industrial Administration. Lance also served as President, TMA – Dallas Chapter and remains active as a Director. In 2001 he was nominated for “Turnaround Manager of the Year”.
Professional Experience
Carl Youngman is respected as one of the deans of corporate growth and renewal in America. For more than thirty-five years he has been helping management team, investors and creditors of public and private companies maximize their operational and financial opportunities. While he is frequently tapped for “due diligence” in support of acquisitions, he is one of the nation’s leading “hands-on” practitioners, with roles ranging from active director to trusted advisor to mentor to the CEO—always with an emphasis on leadership and execution, rather than report writing.
Carl has been involved with performance improvement of more than 250 companies. He has been CEO, President and Director of more than 50, including Chairman of the Audit and Compensation Committees for NYSE companies. He is also regarded a financial expert as defined by Sarbanes-Oxley.
Carl is regarded as one of the top brand resuscitation experts, guiding many well-know firm such as: Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc.; Vie de France Corporation; Au Bon Pain; Inc.; Omni Facility Services of Canada, Inc.; Uniscribe Professional Services, Inc.; Ultimate Franchise Systems, Inc.; Food Research Corporation; Red River Barbeque and Grill; Boston Chicken (c/k/a Boston Market); Tony Maroni’s; Champions Sports, Inc.; Tabi Corp.; Cotton Ginny; Jreck Subs Group, Inc.; Mountain Mike’s Pizza; Cuisine Solutions, Inc.; Hub Mail; The Sun-Times Company; Bonner-Vawter Printing Company; The Concord Group; and Bertram Yachts.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Carl has a BS in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and his MBA from Harvard Business School. He is a frequent speaker in academic and business circles throughout the United States, as well as a member of the World Presidents’ Organization (WPOer), a lecturer at Babson College and a trustee of Lesley University.
Professional Experience
John Zombolas is a seasoned finance and management professional, investor and operator with extensive experience in private equity, investment banking, investment management, and operations consulting. John can be characterized as a results-driven serial entrepreneur with a talent for maximizing value extraction from available resources and driving growth through both organic and acquisitive means. He is a proven team leader, project manager, and business developer with a “high-touch, high-quality” approach to client relations and service. As an M&A specialist, John engages in all aspects of project management and deal execution, including target search, due diligence, valuation and financial modeling, financing, fundraising, and negotiation to definitive agreement.
Prior to joining Verto Partners, John was the co-founder and Managing Director of Promethean Strategies, which delivered financial and strategic guidance, M&A advisory, debt/equity placement, operations improvement, turnaround, and management consulting services to lower middle market companies. At Promethean, John assisted clients in a multitude of industries and sectors across the country, with a heavy emphasis in manufacturing and financial/professional services. His efforts in growth strategy implementation, turnaround consulting, interim C-level management, performance improvement, deal consummation, and post-merger integration realized over $3 billion in capital value creation to his various clients.
John is also an active private equity investor and operator who has owned several manufacturing companies in the U.S. and Europe. He provides strategic direction to these companies and has held management roles within them in order to drive sales growth or lead improvement initiatives.
Prior to his private equity efforts, John co-founded an institutional investment consulting firm, which he subsequently helped develop to reach more than $8 billion in assets under management. In this capacity, John consulted on the full spectrum of asset classes and administrative functions to middle market retirement plans, foundations, and endowments. These activities continued the asset management practice he had begun as a Senior Vice President with Kidder, Peabody & Co., where he also served as a Vice President of the Asset Consulting Group, Director of the Pension Fund Services Group, and an investment banking associate. Additionally, John has held positions in asset management and financial analysis at other Fortune 100 companies, including General Electric and the Walt Disney Company.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
John received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University. As a proponent of responsible corporate governance, he has maintained board seats for various middle market manufacturing, technology, and professional service companies throughout his career. He is currently Chairman of the Board for the Illinois Manufacturing Foundation, a not-for-profit entity he co-founded focused on vocational training to low-income communities. He is also a member of the Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors and the Association for Corporate Growth.
Strategic Partners
Professional Experience
Kaihan Krippendorff is the creator of The Fourth Option™ approach, a strategic methodology that teaches executives and businesses how to seize opportunities others ignore, unlock innovation, and build strategic thinking skills.
A former consultant with McKinsey & Co., Kaihan has spent over a decade studying corporate conflict. He is the author of three business strategy books – “The Way of Innovation,” “The Art of the Advantage,” and “Hide a Dagger Behind a Smile.” Each text delves into the keys to true competitiveness and innovation.
Kaihan identifies mental patterns applied by great military strategists – from Sun Tzu to John Boyd – and applies those strategies to modern breakthrough companies, such as Apple, Whole Foods, and Rosetta Stone.
An expert blogger with FastCompany.com, Kaihan has also been featured in key business media outlets, including BusinessWeek, The Miami-Herald, Harvard Business Review, National Public Radio, and Bloomberg Radio. He also presents his ideas and theories at conferences around the world. By teaching participants that agility and flexibility are more important than strength and resources, Kaihan shows that with creativity, companies can consistently outthink their competition with ease.
Kaihan works regularly with ambitious large and medium-sized corporations including Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and Johnson & Johnson. He has delivered keynote speeches for organizations, such as Motorola, Schering-Plough, Colgate-Palmolive, Fortune Magazine, Harvard Business Review, the Society of Human Resource Managers, the Entrepreneurs Organization, and The Asia Society, that motivate participants to unleash their strategic creativity to better their organizations. He also regularly conducts programs as a faculty member of Wharton Executive Education.
Education Certification & Professional Affiliations
Beyond his research into Eastern military tactics and his own entrepreneurial success, Kaihan has master’s degrees in business administration from Columbia Business School and London Business School, a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering. Kaihan is fluent in English with conversational command of Spanish and German.
Growth Strategy & the Outthinker Process
Strategist, former McKinsey consultant, and author of three business strategy books, Kaihan Krippendorff has over a decade studying corporate conflict. Blending Eastern philosophy, military theory, and modern business strategy, Kaihan helps ambitious companies outthink their competition. Kaihan’s team of creative strategic professionals guides clients through the process of designing bold, creative and actionable strategies. He and his team are committed to unlocking innovation, creativity, and growth. His clients include global corporations such as Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Johnson & Johnson, and HP as well as ambitious small and medium-sized firms.
read more...Strategic Interventions
With a strategy off-site followed by a series of coaching sessions, Kaihan and his team help clients clarify their long-term goals, generated multiple strategies for achieving their goals, rapidly focus on a few high-potential options, and validate and execute the best ones.
Strategic intervention clients include Microsoft, Fidelity Investments, and
the Trade Station Group, among others.
Case study: a mid-sized pharmaceutical company was facing flat growth held down by deteriorating regulatory and competitive environments. We involved nearly 100 employees in a process to generate new growth options, prioritize the highest-potential ones, develop execution plans, and build a tracking system to continually monitor progress. The company focused on the product-market segments in which it could win, partnered to expand production capabilities abroad, and began growing faster than the market.
Strategy Off-Sites
After gathering competitive and market intelligence, we apply a proprietary strategy design methodology during a one to three-day off-site to help management rapidly agree on an aspiration, conceive of strategic options, and reach “strategic clarity” so that they know what they must focus on to win.
Off-site clients include Hewlett Packard, Starbucks, Fidelity Investments, Abiomed, and Right Management, among others.
Case study: a division of a major multinational was struggling to accelerate growth. As its service was being commoditized by new competitors, the division found it increasingly difficult to differentiate itself. We conducted a one-day off-site during which the leadership team generated over 50 new ways to disrupt their competition. One of these proved to be a “winning move” which tripled revenues within three years. The division’s leaders were soon recognized by their global peers as innovators.
Educational Workshops on Innovation and Strategy
Kaihan’s team organizes and delivers a set of unique workshops designed to help companies and their managers become more creative, innovative, and strategic. Combining art and science, left-brain and right-brain approaches, our practical methodology draws on experience designing innovative strategies across sectors and markets. We conduct open-enrollment workshops for audiences of between 30 and 100 managers and entrepreneurs. We regularly deliver these throughout the U.S., Asia, and Latin America, we work with partners such as Harvard Business Review, EO, SHRM, and YPO, as well as conduct in-house programs for clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Colgate-Palmolive and others.
The Outthinker Process
A Strategic and Innovative Thinking Workshop Outthink the Competition®
Times of major change, like the one we are experiencing today, disturb the order of power. They divide leaders into those flexible enough to embrace new perspectives (“outthinkers”) and those who work within old points of view (“thinkers”). The success of your company and your career depends to a great extent on your ability to shift your paradigm and inspire others to do the same.
This program draws on the study of hundreds of history’s most competitive companies from Wal-Mart and GE to Google and Baidu. It shows that businesses unlock breakthrough growth when a team of managers collaborate to shift their perspectives and thereby see strategic options that their competitors overlook.
It packages a set of simple strategizing tools that help a team collaboratively define a creative growth strategy by facilitating a five-stage process:
- Imagine: efficiently align your team on long-term strategic objectives and agree on a key strategic growth question
- Dissect: isolate the key points of leverage that allow you to win with the greatest ease
- Expand: apply strategic patterns to create a large number of innovative strategic moves
- Analyze: rapidly isolate the strategic options with the greatest growth potential then set your strategic priorities
- Sell: develop a plan to build the support of key stake-holders (employees, board-members, investors, etc.)
During this half-day program participants will work through a real-word, relevant business challenge. By immediately practicing what they learn we aim to both building their comfort leading this collaborate strategy design process to every-day business problems and develop new strategies with the potential to drive real business results.
Titron
Overview of Titron
Introduction
The Titron Group is a manufacturing and marketing organization led by a management team which has been supplying quality industrial and consumer products to markets around the world for 30 years. As a business serving a diverse range of global industries, product lines and technologies, the Titron Group offers comprehensive and innovative end-to-end solutions designed to enhance production efficiency and maximise productivity. Our stringent process management, marketing and logistics have enabled us to consistently deliver quality products on a timely basis.
Our representative offices in the US, UK, Australia and Japan has enabled Titron Group to establish a comprehensive global supply network / distribution channels beyond its Asia Pacific footprint, as illustrated.

Titron’s Global Distribution Network
OEM Business
Soon after the Chinese government adopted economic liberalisation in the late-’70s, the Titron Group of companies established a reputation for high-volume, quality-centric manufacturing in the PRC, with dominance over the recording media and media packaging industries.
Recording Media
By the mid-’80s, Titron was the major OEM supplier of blank VHS video cassettes for top household brands and the major supplier for professional “pre-recorded” market, accounting for 80% of global market share. At the same time, Titron was also the major OEM supplier of professional Betacam and U-matic cassettes for the TV and professional broadcasting industry. As the industry evolved, Titron continued to be the major OEM supplier of 3.5 inch MFD for top household brand. It also controlled a sizeable global market share for Magneto Optical Diskettes (MO), with a 50% share of the Japan market.
Media Packaging
From OEM manufacturing of recording media products, Titron continued to be a market leader in the media packaging business. With its track record as a major OEM supplier of CD and CDR jewel cases, Titron continued to play an important role in the media packaging business today as licensee for the manufacture and supply of proprietary AMARAY brand DVD / Bluray products in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Medical Business
Background
Titron’s venture into the medical industry started back in 2005. Recognising the non-availability of Tier 1 tool shops in China to support high-precision / high-cavition tooling needs, Titron teamed up with a Tier 1 U.S. tool design house to augment its engineering expertise for fabrication of high-precision / high-cavition tools in China.
At that time, Becton, Dickenson and Company (BD) was also sourcing for a reliable supplier in Asia for high-quality medical tooling that can offer substantial cost benefits.
With the alignment of Titron’s vision and BD’s needs, Titron was soon qualified as an approved vendor for BD.
The inaugural BD project was to fabricate a set of 144-cavity tools for molding of syringes. The successful completion and delivery of the tools (with a cycle time of 10 seconds) marks a watershed milestone for Titron as it makes its entrance enters into the medical sector. Between 2006 and 2008, a total of eight sets of high-precision, high-cavition tools (ranging from 144-cavity to 64-cavity tools) were fabricated by Titron for export to BD facilities in the US.
Titron’s expertise includes tooling to manufacturing of medical devices and many other products
In response to the changing macro policies in China favouring high value-added industries, Titron evolved to position itself in the medical industry. Prospects of the medical industry are promising and fit well into the current manufacturing environment in China.
Titron leveraged on its high-quality manufacturing experience to cross the high-entry barriers for medical industries that entailed complex technology, stringent qualification specifications and approval from regulatory authorities (eg. US FDA). The initial products targeted are lancet devices used by diabetics for testing blood glucose.
In 2008, Titron entered into an arrangement with Facet Technologies for the transfer of technology to manufacture lancet devices in China for supply and distribution to major brand names like Lifescan (Johnson & Johnson), Abbott, etc. The major part of 2009 was focused on fabrication / qualification of tools, training, assembly qualification, end-customers pre-production preparatory protocols and audits. Production commenced in 2010.