People
Michael M. Cone
Dr. Michael M. Cone, 63, had a twenty-one year career with E. I. du Pont de Nemours before joining a small Philadelphia private equity firm, Crossway Ventures, in 1998. He began with the DuPont company in chemical research and had broad business experience in environmental affairs, finance, marketing, production, and business development. He managed worldwide research for Cyrel®, a flexographic printing plate business, during a period in which new products led to led to a 20-percent annual growth, and he was Venture Manager for Somos®, a DuPont start-up in rapid prototyping. Dr. Cone was a leader in DuPont in the application of Total Quality Management to research. For five years he was an internal management consultant with a practice in TQM, cost reduction, and new product and process development. During Dr. Cone’s time with Crossway, the firm made two acquisitions: F. T. Industries and General Econopak. He was the lead partner on the second transaction. Both acquisitions were small manufacturing firms in the Philadelphia area and both were successful. Dr. Cone served on the Boards of Directors of both companies. Crossway was dissolved in December 2000 and, since then, Dr. Cone has worked with Dubilier & Co. He has a B.A. degree from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Yale. He is a U.S. and foreign patentee. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of EnsSolutions Group, Inc., the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Ticket Philadelphia.
Dana Donovan
Mr. Donovan has more than 20 years of broad-based private equity and direct investment experience. Prior to joining Dubilier & Co. in 2004, Mr. Donovan was president of Clarion Capital, an investment and advisory firm. Previously, Mr. Donovan was managing director at John Hancock Financial—responsible for mezzanine and private equity investments for John Hancock and third-party clients—where he was involved in transactions in excess of $3 billion. Mr. Donovan has served on numerous Boards of Directors. He received his B.A. from Duke University and an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College.
Michael J. Dubilier — Managing Partner
Michael Dubilier, in 1994, formed Dubilier & Co., which has successfully invested in and overseen more than 30 different investments. Prior to starting Dubilier & Co., Mr. Dubilier was a partner at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, where, from 1989 through 1994, he was active in its direct investment business and took part in or initiated numerous acquisitions, recapitalizations, and dispositions of CD&R portfolio companies. Mr. Dubilier entered the investment field in 1983, with Drexel Burnham Lambert, where he specialized in utilities, energy and telecommunications and became a partner in the Corporate Finance Department in 1988. Prior to his investment banking experience, Mr. Dubilier was an operations manager for a Houston-based oil service company.
Mr. Dubilier has served on the corporate Boards of numerous companies—including Phoenix Packaging Company, Magnetic Data Technologies, HEM Pharmaceuticals, APS, and Old London Foods—and is currently on the Boards of Berlin Industries, Inc., Systech Solutions, DC Safety Sales Company. Michael also serves on the Advisory Board of Valor Equity Partners.
Mr. Dubilier was educated at Connecticut College and Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management, where he received his M.B.A. in 1982. He also completed a post-graduate program in finance at New York University Graduate School of Business Administration. He is a frequent lecturer on private equity and alternative investing at Harvard College and the University of California, Berkeley.
Peter D. Goodson
For the last four decades, Mr. Goodson has been an active participant in initiating creative solutions for corporations, governments, municipalities and charitable organizations. Mr. Goodson was a partner at CD&R from 1988 to 1993. Before joining CD&R, Mr. Goodson was a managing director at Kidder, Peabody & Co., where he founded the mergers and acquisitions group 25 years ago. Mr. Goodson served as co‑head of Kidder’s investment banking department, implementing the firm’s successful entrance into merchant banking. He also was elected to the management committee to oversee Kidder’s worldwide business and strategic development. Mr. Goodson is a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches courses in negotiation. He is a graduate of Stanford University and has served on the board of directors of the Stanford athletic department. He completed the Harvard Business School program for financial executives.
Thomas L. Millner
Mr. Millner is Director, CEO & President of Cabela’s Inc. Prior to that he was President and Chief Operating Officer of Remington Arms Company, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of sporting arms and ammunition. He joined Remington in 1994 and was a member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors. From 1989 to 1994, Mr. Millner was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pilliod Cabinet Company. Prior to 1989, he held various general management positions for Thomasville Furniture, Armstrong Furniture, and Broyhill Furniture. Mr. Millner serves on the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Belting Company. In 1976, he earned a B.A. with honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Randolph Macon College.
Edward Nyquist
Mr. Nyquist has been Chief Financial Officer with Optical Disc Corporation since April 2004, when Dubilier & Co. took ownership control. Since that time, he has led the day-to-day effort. His twenty years of experience include financial management and consulting positions of increasing responsibility in a range of industries, from minimally capitalized incubator companies in the areas of high-tech and software development to large well-capitalized firms in biotech and government defense contracting. Mr. Nyquist received his B.S. degree in finance from the University of Connecticut in 1986 and his M.B.A., with a concentration in Management, Business Policy and Corporate Ethics. from the University of San Francisco in 1993.
George M. Smart
Mr. Smart is the Chairman of the Board of FirstEnergy Corp., a utility company based in Akron, Ohio. Prior to that, Mr. Smart was the President of Phoenix Packaging Corporation, a manufacturer of metal lids and closures for the consumer packaging industry. In 1993, Mr. Smart and a team of former managers from Central States Can founded Phoenix Packaging following the acquisition of Central States Can by Crown Cork & Seal. Phoenix was subsequently formed with an equity investment by management, the Ball Corporation, several Canton area individuals, and Dubilier & Co. in 1993. In September 2001, the company was bought by Sonoco and now operates under the name Sonoco-Phoenix Inc. Mr. Smart was President of Sonoco Products, Inc. from 2001 through 2003.
Prior to founding Phoenix, Mr. Smart was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Central States Can for 14 years. Under his leadership, from 1979 through 1992, Central States Can sales and pretax profits increased at compounded annual growth rates of nine percent and 13 percent, respectively. Mr. Smart is a director of Ball Corporation. He received his M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and graduated from Defiance College, where he is currently a trustee.
A. Steven Walleck
Mr. Walleck currently serves as the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Berlin Industries/Perfecta Products, a small OTC medicine marketer acquired by Dubilier & Co.
Previously, Mr. Walleck was Chairman of the Board of Managers and CEO of Magnetic Data Technologies, LLC, a market leader in the field of in-warranty service and repair for electronics and telecommunications equipment, which was sold to Solectron Corp. in 2002. Working with AIG Vantage Capital, Mr. Walleck was also Chairman of AZ Automotive, a mid-sized auto parts manufacturer located in Detroit. subsequently merged with a larger European firm. For most of his career, Mr. Walleck has been (and, as time permits, continues to be) a private consultant specializing in operations, cost reduction, marketing and corporate strategy for both industrial and consumer companies. In addition, he is a private investor, a member of the Board of Directors and principal shareholder in several new business enterprises.
For 23 years, before retiring in October 1993, Mr. Walleck had a distinguished career with McKinsey & Co. He joined McKinsey’s Düsseldorf Office in 1971 after having earned a B.A. from Harvard College, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and a Fulbright Fellowship in Germany. In 1973, he joined McKinsey’s Cleveland office, where he served clients in a broad range of industries: manufacturers and distributors of automobiles, machine tools, automotive and aircraft components, consumer and industrial electronics, white goods and housewares, as well as consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, and health and beauty aids.
In 1978, Mr. Walleck was elected to the partnership and built McKinsey’s first Manufacturing Practice group. After being elected Director in 1983, he assumed global leadership for all of the firm’s Operations Practice groups: Purchasing, Manufacturing, Logistics and Technology Management. Over the 15 years of his leadership, McKinsey’s Operations Practice grew from fewer than a dozen to more than 400 consultants worldwide.
Mr. Walleck has written numerous articles for the McKinsey Quarterly, Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal on the subjects of world-class manufacturing. Mr. Walleck worked with Martin Dubilier and Michael Dubilier at Clayton, Dubilier and Rice to take the Entry Systems Division of IBM private. The entity became Lexmark, and the deal was one of the largest private equity deals ever attempted at the time. He later worked with Martin Dubilier on Goodrich and Allison Engines.
John S. Wilcha
Mr. Wilcha has more than 35 years of experience in the baking and food industries in various marketing and managerial positions with a number of companies including Standard Brands, Gallo Wineries, Borden’s, Arnold Foods, Wild’s Breads, and AmeriFoods. We first met Mr. Wilcha in 1984, when Clayton Dubilier purchased Arnold Foods from Continental Grain Company. Mr. Wilcha was president of Arnold until its sale in 1986 to CPC; during a part of his tenure as president, Arnold owned part of the melba toast business that became Old London Foods.
Mr. Wilcha partnered with us in June 1997 to purchase Old London Foods from CPC International, and he served as chairman, president and CEO of Old London until its sale in January 2005. Mr. Wilcha joined Dubilier & Co. and, at present, is a Board member of Berlin Industries and Perfecta Products Company, Chairman of DC Safety Sales Company and Board member and Chairman of Bluegrass Dairy and Food. Mr. Wilcha received his B.S. degree from Fordham University, where he is a member of the Board of Trustees. He received his M.B.A. from Oklahoma State University. He was also honored as one of the outstanding graduates of the Oklahoma State Graduate Business School on the occasion of it’s 50th Anniversary.
James Wu
James Wu joined Dubilier & Co. in 2002, where he assists early stage and middle market companies by securing investment, managing operations and introducing operating partners at the Board or management level. Prior to joining Dubilier & Co., Mr. Wu was Managing Partner of Lab Econometrics, a Harvard University based hedge fund. Mr. Wu was the President of Clairvergent Technology Group, which provided Internet based technology solutions to the insurance industry. Mr. Wu also worked for private equity fund, McCown De Leeuw, Morgan Stanley and L.E.K. Consulting.
Mr. Wu is currently on the Board of Directors of ODC Nimbus, Covario, LAB Econometrics, AquaNexus and OOSKA News.
Mr. Wu is a Guest Lecturer at the Harvard Department of Economics where he received the Danforth Prize for Excellence in Teaching. He received an undergraduate degree from Harvard University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Mr. Wu earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Dema Zlotin
Dema brings a combination of technical, marketing, operational, and management experience to Dubilier & Co. Over the last 15 years, Dema has founded and operated numerous technology and services companies serving Fortune 500 customers. In 2006, Dema co-founded Covario, a leading search marketing and analytics technology and service provider that grew to over $20M in revenues in 2010. In 1996, Dema co-founded Silicon Space, a software services firm that grew to $10M annually, then sold in 2007 to Dataskill, Inc. In 2009 he started a mortgage investment firm, Partner Funds, in response to the non-functioning credit environment.
Dema started his career at Andersen Consulting and Price Waterhouse. Dema earned his computer science degree from UC San Diego and was a Jr. Fellow at the San Diego Supercomputer Center.