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Dr. Michael M. Cone, 59, 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 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 Entac Emulsion Products, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Ticket Philadelphia.
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 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 and 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.
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.
Gordon talking with Sen. Arlen Specter after her testimony before Congress in 2005
Anne Gordon joined Dubilier & Co. in May 2007. She is responsible for buying, building and investing in media firms, bringing her 25 years of experience in a wide variety of management roles for daily newspapers to the task of identifying new investments. Her career also included a two-year stint in the competitive Denver television market at KCNC-4. Ms. Gordon took time out from her journalism career in 1992 to work on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign as a paid communications consultant for Colorado Democrats.
Ms. Gordon returned to daily journalism in 1993 when she joined the staff of the Plain Dealer in Cleveland. She left in 1999 to join the Philadelphia Inquirer and, in 2002, became the managing editor, responsible for all aspects of the newspaper’s day-to-day operations and its online version.
Ms. Gordon has appeared regularly on national talk shows, speaking on political and media issues, and she testified before Congress in October 2005 on the importance of a federal Shield Law for journalists. As a 2001 Eisenhower Fellow, she studied online and mobile media ventures in Finland and Sweden, with a special emphasis on wireless research and development with Nokia and Ericsson. She was a Pulitzer Prize juror in 2003, serving as chairwoman, and in 2002 was a juror in the Public Service category.
Ms. Gordon serves on the Advisory Board of Covario, a San Diego-based software firm that offers large companies the ability to track their search advertisements. Large clients include several media corporations. Dubilier & Co. is an early venture capital investor in Covario. Ms. Gordon is also on the Advisory Board of Good Magazine and is on the Board of Directors of Verve Wireless.
Ms. Gordon received her B.A. from the University of Denver in 1979.
Ms. Keary joined Dubilier & Co. at its inception in 1996. She is responsible for supporting all of the firm’s operational and administration functions. Prior to joining Dubilier & Co., Ms. Keary was the office manager and executive assistant to the Chairman/CEO of Eastdil Realty, LLC., a real estate investment banking firm. Ms. Keary is a graduate of Iona College.
Daphne Kis is a well-respected figure in global technology circles. As Executive Producer of PC Forum, which year after year brought start-up innovators together with the industry’s most powerful leaders, and as Publisher of Release 1.0, information technology ‘s premier monthly report on emerging trends, Kis has helped guide and disseminate the breakthroughs that today’s tech users take for granted. PC Forum regularly reshaped the technology landscape by introducing innovations like the Palm Pilot, Ironport Systems, AOL and ICQ (the original instant messaging technology), and by hosting the roll-out of blogging and social networking technologies. Throughout Kis’s 20-year collaboration with Internet pioneer Esther Dyson, both PC Forum and Release 1.0 were renowned for identifying future stars, pre-emergent trends and paradigm shifts in the role of technology such as the primacy of content (1993), the seismic shift that intellectual property would undergo on the Internet (1994), the importance of online identity and transparency (1998), the ascendance of Web 2.0, with the Internet as the platform for collaboration (2000) and the role of behavioral advertising (2005).
Kis has been a private equity investor since 1992. She was a founding partner in EDventure Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on burgeoning Eastern European technologies. Kis invested in and nurtured more than 25 start-up enterprises, many of which have led to successful IPOs, acquisitions and stellar growth. These have included Bright Mail (sold to Symantec), iTraffic (to Agency.com), Medscape (to WedMD) and NetBeans (to Sun Microsystems). Kis has served on the Boards of iPerceptions (a web analytics company that trades on the Toronto stock exchange); ApplyWise (an online college admissions counseling program); Affinity Labs (a social networking and content start-up that recently sold to Monster.com for $60M); WorkItMom.com (a social networking and content start-up); and About.com.
A visionary with a solid track record of successful implementations, Kis combines high-level strategic thinking about industry trends with extensive operational experience. As President & CEO of EDventure Holdings, she supervised all aspects of its acquisition by CNET Networks, including selection of the investment bank, evaluation of prospective buyers, negotiations and management of the integration process. Following the acquisition, Kis continued to develop and launch new products focused on thought leadership as CNET’s VP of Business-to-Business Programs. These products included several corporate-sponsored, online video content series and a pioneering blog network of industry pundits. Most recently, Kis orchestrated the sale of Release 1.0 to O’Reilly Media.
As an active member of the New York information technology and media communities, Kis has been quoted in industry publications, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker. She has worked on numerous technology-related initiatives and served on the boards of organizations such as the Women’s High-Tech Coalition. Kis has also served as an arbitrator for the International Chamber of Commerce, mediating international software disputes.
Prior to joining Covario as its CEO, Mr. Mann was the Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Peregrine Systems, where he managed Global Alliances and business development, including the firm’s relationship with IBM. He was part of the executive team that sold the company to Hewlett Packard for $425 million, for an approximate $170 million shareholder value gain (40 percent) just sixteen months after joining the firm. Mr. Mann previously participated at the executive and management levels of three technology company IPOs (Homestore, ONYX and Infinity), all ranging from $250M to almost $2B market capitalization, one other public company acquisition (HNC Software, at an almost $800M purchase price), and one public company division turnaround (Fair Isaac’s myFICO.com division)—where he grew direct-to-site ecommerce revenue more than 300 percent in one year (from $8M to $24M), primarily through the use of search marketing. Mr. Mann has extensive experience in sales, marketing, product development, alliances and strategy for technology companies in high-growth and turnaround situations leading to a liquidity event. He earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Cornell University, where he graduated with honors.
Mr. Millner is 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 is 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.
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.
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 also a director of Ball Corporation, Belden & Blake Corporation, and Commercial Intertech 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.
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. 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.
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 Perfects Products Company and is chairman of DC Safety Sales Company. 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.
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. He is also currently President of ODC Nimbus, a high-tech operating company in the Dubilier portfolio. Prior to joining Dubilier & Co., Mr. Wu co-founded Lab Econometrics, a Harvard-University-based fixed-income hedge fund, where he was the managing partner. Mr. Wu led the fund raising, development and eventual sale of a minority interest in Lab Econometrics to Atlantic Asset Management, where the fund has been trading since 2003. Prior to founding Lab Econometrics, Mr. Wu was the president and founder of Clairvergent Technology Group formerly Revbox, which provided Internet-based technology solutions to the insurance industry. From 1992 to 1999, Mr. Wu was active in the direct investment business for McCown De Leeuw, a private equity fund. Prior to this, Mr. Wu was an associate at a strategy consulting firm, L.E.K. and also a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley.
Mr. Wu is currently on the Board of Directors of Covario, LAB Econometrics, and ODC Nimbus. He previously served on the Board of Directors of DIMAC Corporation, a $400-million-in-revenue leader in direct marketing, and on the Board of Nimbus CD International which was publicly traded on the NASDAQ.
Mr. Wu is a Guest Lecturer at the Harvard Department of Economics. He earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1991, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. During his senior year, Mr. Wu received the Danforth Prize for Excellence in Teaching. In 1997, Mr. Wu earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
