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Vincent Mai joined AEA in 1989 as chief executive officer and in 1998 became chairman. He led AEA in a new direction by committing the firm to extensive due diligence, successfully implementing operating improvements in portfolio companies, and working in close partnership with management teams to build businesses. Mr. Mai has been intensively involved in every aspect of AEA's decision-making process on all investments. He is chairman of the investment committees of AEA's 2006 Investment Program and both the AEA Mezzanine Fund and the AEA Small Business Fund. He has served on the boards of many AEA portfolio companies and currently serves as chairman of the board of directors of Burt's Bees.
Before joining AEA, Mr. Mai was a partner at Lehman Brothers for 14 years. He was head of that firm's international investment banking activities and co-head of all of its investment banking activities for three years. Before assuming management responsibilities at Lehman, Mr. Mai worked with a broad range of European and U.S. businesses on their strategic and capital-raising needs. He started his career at S. G. Warburg & Co. in London, where he became an executive director. During that period, Mr. Mai worked closely with Sir Siegmund Warburg, one of the co-founders of AEA.
Mr. Mai is involved in several not-for-profit activities. He is chairman of the board of Sesame Workshop, producers of Sesame Street, a leading children's educational television program featured in more than one hundred countries. He also serves on the boards of the International Center for Transitional Justice and the Juilliard School. Mr. Mai was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations, of which he remains a member, The Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Fannie Mae.
Mr. Mai, who grew up in South Africa, is a chartered accountant and was educated at the University of Cape Town.
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John Garcia joined AEA in 1999 as a managing director and head of the firm's then newly-formed European operations based in London. In 2002, Mr. Garcia became president of AEA while continuing to head European operations and lead AEA's global value-added industrial products and specialty chemicals teams. In 2006, Mr. Garcia also became chief executive officer of AEA. He is responsible for AEA's investment review process and overall strategy and operations. He was also instrumental in the creation of the AEA Mezzanine Fund and the AEA Small Business Fund.
Mr. Garcia led the firm's global investment strategy in specialty chemicals, while focusing on value-added industrial and consumer opportunities in Europe. Those efforts have led to three of AEA's largest recent investments: Noveon International, Sovereign Specialty Chemicals, and Symrise. Mr. Garcia has served on the board of numerous companies, including Noveon International and Sovereign Specialty Chemicals and currently serves on the boards of Pregis, as chairman, Convenience Food Systems, Symrise, AEA Investors and various private equity funds managed by EQT Partners. He also serves as a member of the investment committees of AEA Investors and the AEA Mezzanine Fund.
Before joining AEA, Mr. Garcia held various positions at Credit Suisse First Boston, including global head of the chemicals group, member of the European investment banking department's management committee, head of the European acquisitions and leveraged finance and financial sponsors group, and head of the European natural resources group. Earlier in his career, Mr. Garcia was a managing director at Schroder Wertheim in New York and held various industrial positions at Atlantic Richfield in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Garcia received a Ph.D. and an M.A. in chemistry from Princeton University, an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.Sc. from the University of Kent in Canterbury, England.
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Damon Ball joined AEA Investors in 2005 as a member of the Small Business Fund team. Before joining AEA, Mr. Ball was a managing director of Saratoga Partners from 2002 to 2005, where he focused on making industrial investments including Advanced Lighting and Sericol International, which he co-led. Mr. Ball initially joined Saratoga as a senior advisor in 2001. Prior to joining Saratoga, he was managing director of Sextant Partners, an investment advisory firm, during which time he advised Restoration Hardware on their successful refinancing. Previously, Mr. Ball was a senior vice president at Desai Capital Management, which he initially joined in 1988, where he focused on sourcing, negotiating, and achieving successful realizations on a number of successful private equity investments in the business and consumer services industries.
Mr. Ball graduated from University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in economics and received an M.B.A. from Harvard University. For ten years, he served on the board of Restoration Hardware, Inc. and for two of those years, he was named lead independent director.
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Gary Cappeline joined AEA in 2007 as an Operating Partner. He is involved in evaluating acquisitions, maximizing the value received from portfolio companies and supporting our Asian operations. Mr. Cappeline co-led the AEA team on the acquisition of Houghton International and currently serves on the board of directors of Houghton International and Unifrax.
Before joining AEA, Mr. Cappeline was president and chief operating officer of Ashland Inc., a diversified chemical company. His responsibilities included strategic planning and execution for Ashland’s four divisions, oversight of value-adding projects, investor relations and numerous global acquisitions. He was a member of the executive committee.
Mr. Cappeline spent the first 23 years of his career with Ashland holding positions of increasing responsibility. He then left to join Engelhard Corporation as a group vice president. He then joined Honeywell Corporation as president of their chemical sector. Before returning to Ashland in 2002, he was at Bear Stearns Merchant Bank, their private equity arm, as chemical industry partner.
Mr. Cappeline was a member of the board and executive committee of the American Chemistry Counsel. He currently is on the board of Innophos Corporation, a publicly traded company.
Mr. Cappeline holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemical engineering from the City College of New York. He has also attended postgraduate courses at Indiana University and completed the advanced management program at Harvard. Top |
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Baron Carlson joined AEA Investors in 2004 as a member of the Small Business Fund team. Mr. Carlson played a significant role in developing several of AEA's recent investments including PLZ Holdings (Plaze and Claire-Sprayway), Troxell Communications, Implus Footcare, Colony Hardware and Sextant Education Corporation ( Southwest Florida College and Platt College). He currently serves on the board of directors of each of these companies. Mr. Carlson was also involved with AEA’s successful investment in In the Swim.
Prior to joining AEA, Mr. Carlson was an associate at Arena Capital Partners where he focused on investments in business and consumer services companies. Prior to Arena Capital, Mr. Carlson was with GE Capital’s private equity investment division and was a member of the mergers and acquisitions department at Prudential Securities.
Mr. Carlson received a B.A. in government from Dartmouth College.
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Joe Carrabino
joined AEA in 2004 to lead a new mezzanine investing
effort focused on the middle market. Prior
to joining AEA, Mr. Carrabino spent four years
at Whitney & Co. as co-head of the mezzanine
debt group and member of the credit and investment
committees, managing $1 billion of dedicated
capital. While at Whitney, he was also
co-head of the structured products (CBO) group
and was a member of its credit and investment
committees. Mr. Carrabino also spent significant
time on private equity activities and served
on several boards in his various capacities.
Prior to joining Whitney in 1999, Mr. Carrabino
spent twelve years at Credit Suisse First Boston
in a number of areas including leveraged finance
and financial sponsor coverage, high yield finance
and corporate restructurings and reorganizations.
Mr. Carrabino is a graduate of Harvard College, with
an A.B. in economics.
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John Cozzi joined AEA Investors in 2004. He is co-head of the AEA Small Business Fund, which invests in companies with less than $150 million in enterprise value in AEA's areas of strategic focus: value-added industrials, specialty chemicals, consumer products, and business services. Mr. Cozzi co-led AEA's acquisitions of In the Swim and PLZ Holdings (Plaze and Claire-Sprayway). He serves on the boards of In The Swim, PLZ Holdings, ITT Educational Services, EduNeering Inc., and Global Trade Finance LLC.
Before joining AEA, Mr. Cozzi was a managing director at Arena Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in small companies in the consumer and business services sectors. Previously, he was a managing director in the leveraged finance group of Credit Suisse First Boston ("CSFB") and led the development of CSFB's education industry practice. Prior to joining CSFB, Mr. Cozzi was at Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., and NYNEX Corp.
Mr. Cozzi received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in economics and computer science from Union College with honors.
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Shiv Dalvie joined AEA in 1997 and has been involved in a broad variety of the firm's activities. He moved to Hong Kong in 2006 to lead the firm’s private equity investment activities in Asia.
Mr. Dalvie played a significant role in developing and executing a number of the firm's recent investments including CPG International, Burt's Bees, and Kranson Industries. He is also involved in managing the firm's investment in Telephia. Earlier in his career, Mr. Dalvie was involved in developing, monitoring, and harvesting the firm's investments in XM Satellite Radio and Mettler-Toledo. He currently serves on the board of directors of CPG International and Telephia.
Prior to joining AEA, Mr. Dalvie was a member of the mergers and acquisitions group of Credit Suisse First Boston where he was involved in advising industrial, chemical and pharmaceutical clients such as Bayer, Broken Hill Proprietary, W.R. Grace, Tomkins, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer and Pitney Bowes on seven transactions with an aggregate value of over $3.5 billion.
Mr. Dalvie received an M.B.A. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in computer science and economics with honors from Yale University.
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Martin Eltrich joined AEA in 2001 and focuses on consumer products investments. He currently serves on the board of directors of Acosta and Henry. Mr. Eltrich co-led AEA's transaction teams in acquiring Burt's Bees, Henry and Acosta.
Before joining AEA, Mr. Eltrich was an investment banker covering the consumer products industry advising companies such as Diageo, General Mills, Nestlé and Coca-Cola in numerous transactions. He was an investment banker at Greenhill & Co. in New York, joining that firm at its inception in 1996. While at Greenhill, Mr. Eltrich helped facilitate more than a dozen merger and acquisition transactions with more than $40 billion of transaction value, including Pillsbury's sale to General Mills and Nestlé's acquisition of Ralston Purina. Earlier, Mr. Eltrich was a member of the consumer products group at Morgan Stanley.
Mr. Eltrich received a B.S. in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Glenn Fischer joined AEA in 2005 as an operating partner. He is involved in the evaluation of potential acquisitions and is heavily focused on working with portfolio companies to improve operational performance and maximize value creation. Mr. Fischer currently serves on the board of directors of Pregis, CPG, Henry, Behavioral Interventions and SRS. He served as the interim chief executive officer of Pregis through the transition to its permanent CEO, and also served for six months as the interim CEO of CPG during '07/'08 period.
Before joining AEA, Mr. Fischer was president and chief operating officer from 2000 to 2005 of Airgas, Inc., the largest U.S. distributor of industrial, medical and specialty gases, welding, safety and related products. While at Airgas, he led the successful acquisition and integration into Airgas of BOC's and AirProducts' U.S. packaged gas businesses.
Prior to joining Airgas, Mr. Fischer spent nineteen years with The BOC Group in a wide range of positions leading to his appointment in 1997 as president of BOC Gases, North America. In addition to his responsibility for all North American operations, Mr. Fischer served on The BOC Group executive management board and led the global development of its glass market sector. Prior to joining BOC in 1981, Mr. Fischer served at W.R. Grace in a variety of finance, planning and management roles. He served on the board and executive committee of the Compressed Gas Association (CGA), and was chairman in 2004.
Mr. Fischer received an M.B.A. in finance from Long Island University and a B.S. in business from Long Island University, both with honors.
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Tom Groves joined AEA in 2004 to help implement a new mezzanine debt investing effort focused on middle-market companies. As part of the mezzanine investment team, Mr. Groves has been associated with a number of the firm’s private equity investments, including Henry and Plaze.
Prior to joining AEA, Mr. Groves spent over thirteen years at Credit Suisse First Boston in a number of areas including leveraged finance and financial sponsor coverage, high yield finance, and corporate restructurings and reorganizations. During his tenure at Credit Suisse First Boston, he completed over 60 transactions for over $14 billion in total value, including senior bank loans, bridge loans, high yield offerings, equity offerings and merger and acquisition transactions.
Mr. Groves received an A.B. in economics and government from Bowdoin College. Top |
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Brian Hoesterey joined AEA in 1999 and focuses on investments in the specialty chemicals and value-added industrial products sectors. Mr. Hoesterey currently serves on the board of directors of CPG International, Henry, Houghton International, Pregis, and Unifrax, five investments that he co-led. He also serves on the board of directors of SRS Roofing. He played a major role in AEA's investments in Sovereign Specialty Chemicals and Noveon International and Symrise.
Before joining AEA, Mr. Hoesterey was an executive at BT Capital Partners, the private equity group of Bankers Trust. At BT Capital, he focused on companies in the chemicals, general industrial, and services sectors. His investments included leveraged buyouts in the chemicals and packaging sectors.
Before entering the private equity industry, Mr. Hoesterey advised corporate management and boards of directors throughout the world on financial and strategic issues. One such position was with the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley, during which he was located in New York and Hong Kong. He also was in the New York office of McKinsey & Co., advising clients on corporate and divisional business strategy. During his tenure there, Mr. Hoesterey focused on clients in process industries and other industrial businesses, including chemicals, pulp and paper, agribusiness, and general industrial manufacturing and services.
Mr. Hoesterey received an M.B.A. from Harvard University and a B.B.A. in accounting from Texas Christian University, both with honors.
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Sandy Krieger joined AEA as general counsel and partner in 2003. He has been a senior partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, joining that firm in 1973 and becoming a partner in 1977. For the prior sixteen years, in his capacity as a Fried Frank partner, Mr. Krieger has worked on a broad range of transactions as adviser to AEA, including advising AEA on both new investments and liquidity events. He also worked closely with AEA on many strategic and internal matters. During his career at Fried Frank, he concentrated his practice on business acquisitions and strategic planning.
For the past few years, Mr. Krieger has divided his time between Fried Frank's New York and London offices, serving in the latter as the firm's senior partner.
Mr. Krieger received a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from Cornell University both with honors. He is admitted to the bar in New York.
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Jim Leng is Chairman of the European Advisory Board of AEA, Chairman of Doncasters (Precision Engineering Company) and Deputy Chairman of Tata Steel Ltd. of India. As a Non-Executive Director, he sits on the Boards of Alston (French Engineering Company) and TNK-BP, the largest independent Russian oil and gas company. He is also a Senior Advisor to HSBC, a Governor at Ashridge College and the National Institute of Economic & Social Research. From 2001-2009, he was Chairman of Corus Group plc, a global steel company sold to Tata of India. Past Non-Executive Directorships include Pilkington plc (Glass), Hanson plc (Aggregates & Building Products) and IMI plc (Engineering).
In an executive capacity he was CEO of Laporte plc, an international specialty chemicals company and before that Low & Bonar plc, a diverse materials and packaging company. His early business years were spent at John Waddington plc where he was a MD of a number of their subsidiaries including consumer goods and packaging companies.
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Susan Lin joined AEA in
September 2006 and is based in our Hong Kong office to help develop the firm’s private
equity activities in Asia.
Prior to joining AEA, Ms. Lin was the chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley Taiwan
and served on Morgan Stanley’s Asia executive committee. Ms. Lin was involved in capital
markets and mergers and acquisition activities in the Greater China region across financial,
technology and general industry sectors. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Ms. Lin was a
managing director at Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C. with responsibilities for managing the
North Asia private wealth management business.
Ms. Lin received an M.S. in electrical engineering from Columbia University and a B.S.
from The Cooper Union.
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Chris Mahan joined AEA in 1991 and focuses on
value-added industrial products and special situation investments. He has actively
participated in the development and implementation of AEA’s strategic initiatives,
including the AEA Small Business Fund, the AEA Mezzanine Fund. He is involved with and serves on the investment committee
of the AEA Small Business Fund, and also serves as the chief financial officer of AEA Investors LP.
Mr. Mahan co-led AEA’s teams on the acquisition of current portfolio companies CPG International and
Convenience Food Systems. He serves as chairman of the board of Convenience Food Systems and as a board member of CPG International.
Mr. Mahan has been intimately involved in shepherding seven AEA portfolio companies
through the complete investment cycle. These include the leveraged buyout investments
in Graco Children’s Products, Leiner Health Products, Li & Fung (Distribution), and
North Arundel Cable Television. In each case, he worked through all aspects of the
companies’ relationship with AEA, identifying the investments, conducting extensive
due diligence reviews, participating in strategic decision making, overseeing
operations, and, ultimately, devising and executing AEA’s exit strategy. Mr. Mahan has
worked closely in various capacities with a number of other AEA portfolio companies
and has often served as a director or officer.
Prior to joining AEA, Mr. Mahan was a consultant at Bain & Co., working on a range of
projects with global manufacturing companies. He received a B.A. from Amherst
College with honors.
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William Owens joined AEA Holdings
Asia on April 1, 2006 and is a managing director of AEA Investors in Hong Kong.
Prior to joining AEA, he was chief executive officer and vice chairman of Nortel. Mr. Owens had
served on the board of directors of Nortel and took the helm of Nortel following the
disclosure of accounting issues in April 2004. Under his leadership, Nortel was reestablished
as a strong, stable, ethical Fortune 500 company growing strongly and on the path to
leadership in the telecommunications and enterprise IT global marketplace.
Prior to joining Nortel, Mr. Owens was chief executive officer and chairman of Teledesic LLC and
before that, he was the president, chief operating officer and vice chairman of Science Applications
International Corporation (SAIC), the largest employee-owned high-technology company in the U.S.
Prior to joining SAIC, Mr. Owens was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the second-ranking
military officer in the U.S. He had responsibility for the reorganization and restructuring
of the armed forces in the post-Cold War era.
From 1991 to 1993, Mr. Owens was the deputy chief of Naval Operations for Resources, Warfare Requirements
and Assessments. He served as commander of the U.S. Sixth Fleet in 1990 and 1991 during Operation Desert
Storm in Iraq. Between 1988 and 1991, Mr. Owens served as senior military assistant to Secretaries of
Defense Frank Carlucci and Dick Cheney, the senior military position in the Office of the Secretary
of Defense.
Mr. Owens has served on the board of directors of nineteen public companies and has founded two
technology companies, Lumera and Extend America. He is on the board of Daimler Chrysler AG, Polycom,
Wipro, Embarq and AEA Investors LP. Mr. Owens is a member of several philanthropic boards including the
Carnegie Foundation, Brookings Institution and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He is a
member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mr. Owens has a B.A. and M.S. in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University and an
M.S. in management from George Washington University.
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Tom Pryma joined AEA in 1999 and focuses on value-added industrial products. He has developed an expertise in packaging and services businesses and co-led AEA's recent investments in Houghton International, Pregis and Unifrax. Mr. Pryma currently serves on the boards of directors of these companies. He also co-led AEA's successful investment in Kranson.
Earlier in his career with AEA, Mr. Pryma was one of the first members of the London office where he was involved in establishing the office, developing its investment strategy, marketing the firm, and sourcing and evaluating a variety of investment opportunities.
Before joining AEA, Mr. Pryma was with the investment banking division of Merrill Lynch, where he focused on advising a broad range of private equity investment firms. As part of what was at the time the leading financial sponsor coverage practice on Wall Street, Mr. Pryma worked with many of the world's leading sponsors and middle-market firms on all aspects of their investment activities.
Mr. Pryma graduated from Georgetown University with honors and is a certified public accountant.
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Louie Sharpe joined AEA in 1998. He has been involved in a range of AEA's activities and focuses on investments in the specialty chemicals and value-added industrial products sectors. Mr. Sharpe played a significant role in a number of the firm's investments in these areas, including Dal-Tile International, Henry, Sovereign Specialty Chemicals and SRS Roofing Supply. He currently serves on the board of directors of Henry and SRS Roofing Supply. Prior to joining AEA, Mr. Sharpe was in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley.
Mr. Sharpe received a B.A. in economics from Yale University.
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Martin Strässer joined AEA's London office in 2000 and focuses on investments in the value-added industrial and specialty chemicals sectors. He was involved in the execution of AEA's investment in Symrise and participated in the AEA teams that led the acquisition of Pregis and Noveon International. Mr. Strässer is actively involved with Convenience Food Systems, for which he serves on the board of directors, and Symrise.
Prior to joining AEA, Mr. Strässer was an investment manager at Mezzanine Management and was involved in various equity and mezzanine investments in the U.K. and Continental Europe. Prior to this position, he was a strategy consultant with L.E.K. Consulting in London, where he had a strong focus on commercial due diligence assignments in takeover situations.
Mr. Strässer received an M.B.A. from INSEAD with distinction, a B.A. and a Diplom-Betriebswirt in European business administration from the European School of Business (ESB Reutlingen), a diploma in marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and an M.Sc. in finance and accounting from the London School of Economics.
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Alan Wilkinson joined AEA in 1989. For ten years as a managing director, he concentrated his investment activities in industrial and consumer products companies, overseeing many of AEA's successful investments during that period. He was involved in all aspects of the investment review process and portfolio company management at AEA and either led or co-led AEA's successful investments in Rubatex, Specialty Coatings International, Leiner Health Products, Sola International, and Mettler-Toledo. He also served as a director of Rand McNally. Mr. Wilkinson left AEA in 1999 and joined an advisory firm. He returned to the private equity business in 2002 and rejoined AEA in 2004. He currently focuses on value-added industrial and service sector investments and is co-head of the AEA Small Business Fund. Mr. Wilkinson co-led the AEA Small Business Fund's investment team in the acquisitions of Plaze (and its acquisition of Claire-Sprayway), In The Swim and a recent investment in PPC Industries. He currently serves as a director of these companies. Mr. Wilkinson also co-led AEA's successful investment in Kranson.
While a partner from 2002 to 2004 at a middle market private equity firm, Saratoga Partners, Mr. Wilkinson focused on industrial companies and was responsible for the firm's successful investment in Sericol, the world's leading manufacturer of ultraviolet screen and digital inks for graphic and industrial applications. From 2000 to 2002, Mr. Wilkinson was a managing director at investment banking firm Peter J. Solomon Co., with primary responsibility for industrial company coverage. From 1984 to 1989, Mr. Wilkinson was with Lehman Brothers, first in the mergers and acquisitions department and then with the principal investment group.
Mr. Wilkinson received an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.S. in mathematics from King's College London. He became a chartered account in England in 1980.
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Scott Zoellner joined
AEA in 2004 to assist in the formation of a
new mezzanine investing effort focused on the
middle market. Prior to joining AEA, he was
a principal in the New York office of Allied
Capital, a NYSE-traded business development
company. While at Allied Capital, Mr. Zoellner was
responsible for originating, executing and monitoring
privately negotiated debt and equity investments
in both sponsored and non-sponsored middle market
companies, serving as a director of Callidus
Capital Corporation and a member of the management
committee of Callidus Capital Management LLC.
Prior to joining Allied Capital, Mr. Zoellner
served as a consultant to the Carlyle Group
and a managing director in the investment banking
division of Credit Suisse First Boston ("CSFB") where
he spent twelve years after joining the firm in
1990. During his tenure at CSFB, he was a
member of the leveraged finance group and the
global industrial and services group. While
at CSFB, Mr. Zoellner originated and executed debt
and equity financings in the public, 144A and
private markets in both U.S. and Europe.
Mr. Zoellner holds a B.A. in economics and political
science from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut,
and an M.B.A. from NYU Stern School of Business.
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