Don Eldert Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Il, Us

Wheeling, Illinois, Us

Dual role as Board Member & EVP/CFO with responsibility for finance, accounting, supply chain, IT, product pricing & cost estimating, & data analytics & imaging for one of largest integrated direct mail production, logistics & marketing solutions companies in the U.S., serving diverse client base of Fortune 1000 customers across numerous industries. Five facilities & over 1300 employees.

Reporting to Board & PE sponsors in dual role as EVP/CFO of Frontline Tooling Solutions, a $140M holding company comprised of a precision tool (Peak Tool Works -$80M) & tool holder (Techniks -$60M) manufacturer . Full finance, IT & supply chain responsibility. As EVP/COO-Peak Toolworks, had full P&L & operations responsibility for distressed business with 14 manufacturing & service facilities across U.S. & Canada. •Led turnaround of Peak in face of declining sales & tight liquidity; drove 720+ basis point contribution margin improvement through introduction of site-focused KPI’s, detailed operations reviews, and top-grading of key positions.•Helped lead 18% sales growth & 300+ bp margin improvement in Techniks business.•Identified/fixed flawed contract pricing for several key customers; annual revenue impact of >$0.27M.•Drove >$0.3M annualized cost savings across Frontline.•Launched preventive maintenance program across operations; increased machine up-time to >97%.•Improved on-time delivery >90% (< 65% at many Peak sites); reduced late orders 75%.•Led working capital reductions resulting in 15% ($3.2M) drop across Frontline. •Implemented rolling 13 week cash forecast across Frontline; greatly improved accuracy (+/-5%) while managing under very tight liquidity (>11X unadjusted); adopted by other Audax companies.•Top-graded supply chain team; drove annualized material savings of >$0.7M.•Formed Manufacturing, Quality & Safety councils (PTW) to standardize best practices across platform. •Helped lead successful carve-out & prepare Techniks for sale to Z Capital Partners; conceived and executed “no TSA” strategy in preparation for sale.•Overhauled Frontline risk program; drove 27% (+$0.2M) premium reduction & no increase in risk retention.•Led three year Q of E analysis in preparation for Peak recapitalization/refinancing post-sale of Techniks.•Led efforts to correct two years of legacy accounting issues discovered during 2017 Frontline audit.

MICRONICS ENGINEERED FILTRATION, Portsmouth, New Hampshire 2015 to 2017World leader in industrial filtration solutions to customers in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. 300+ employees across six facilities located in the United States & UK. Micronics was acquired in 2013 by Vance Street Capital, a PE firm based in Los Angeles California. Recruited by former CEO of Atlas Material Testing to join company as co-CEO; Reported to Board; Full P&L responsibility for industrial dry filtration & air pollution control services business. Five manufacturing & sales/service facilities in the U.S. and Mexico. 200+ employees with market concentration in North America. Twelve direct reports. Co-investor.• Developed/executed growth strategy including South/Southwest US market expansion driving core sales growth >9% despite significant economic & competitive headwinds.• Led acquisition efforts of three dry filtration companies.• Reorganized/integrated four companies acquired in 10 month period.• Rebuilt & led sales/marketing team & business development efforts.• Implemented lean manufacturing to reduce lead times & cost; Co-led Maquiladora start-up.• Implemented operational KPI’s to drive significant cost & quality performance gains.• Upgraded marketing collateral & implemented SEO strategy across platform to leverage brand.• Negotiated major 5 year service agreement with largest APC customer.• Developed intellectual property for revolutionary redesign of key dry filtration system component used across the industry.• Worked with team to developed reliable LCC sourcing for raw materials/products.• Negotiated strategic alliance with WL Gore to cross-leverage markets & capabilities.• Asked by Board to assume dual-role as interim CFO to stabilize finance function until CFO hired; negotiated $10M ABL revolver, standardized payroll benefits, treasury, insurance, & IT infrastructure across platform resulting in over $0.4M of annualized savings.

Market leader in food packaging solutions to blue chip customers in the Americas and Europe. 700+ employees with 5 facilities located in the United States. Novipax was a newly formed platform company of Atlas Holdings LLC, a private equity firm based in Greenwich Connecticut. Novipax LLC was formed from a complex carve-out transaction negotiated with Sealed Air Corporation for the acquisition of their food-related polystyrene foam tray and absorbent pads business. After successful exit of ASG, selected by Chairman of Atlas Holdings to assume leadership role in Company and lead complex carve-out transaction with Sealed Air. •Worked with PE firm on successful deal execution and formation of new platform company, while continuing in role as EVP & CFO of ASG Worldwide.•Led negotiation of transition services agreement (TSA) with Sealed Air to expedited deal deadline.•Led all efforts to build infrastructure to support carve-out.•Led all efforts related to development & implementation of appropriate risk policies for Company.•Co-led development of strategy associated with redefining sales territories & redeploying sale & marketing resources accordingly.•Led war on talent to create key functional organizations (Finance, Strategic Supply Chain, and IT).

Senior Executive responsible for all aspects of global finance, accounting & information technology for $1 billion private equity owned specialty printing and packaging leader. ASG operated 25 facilities across four continents with strong presence in North America, Europe, China, Korea and Latin America. ASG is a portfolio company of Atlas Holdings LLC, a Greenwich Connecticut based private equity firm.Reported to ASG Chairman & Board and served as primary interface with debt & equity sponsors of Company.Hired by Chairman of Atlas Holdings in anticipation of merging AGI and Shorewood Packaging together; Leadership role in integration of companies, including formation & top-grading of lean finance and IT organizations to support the global business.• Led four complex financings increasing both liquidity & borrowing flexibility over $100M.• Working with regional CEO’s, increased profitability & cash generation across all regions.• Lead complex sale of Americas & China folding carton and print business to strategic buyer in 2014 generating significant additional returns on invested capital.• Co-lead with Global CEO on carve-out & sale of business unit to strategic buyer in 2013 generating significant return on invested capital, < 14 months after acquisition.• Key role in successful buy-out of hostile minority partner in Mexico JV, enabling significant turnaround in business performance.• Developed cash repatriation strategy to accelerate return of $15M of trapped cash from China.• Partnered with Americas CEO to drive > $25M of savings in first year of ownership. • Worked closely with regional CEO’s to develop five year strategic plans for each region including exit valuations under alternative scenarios & gained Board approval to execute plans as presented. • Lead global strategic & capital planning, global audit, and long & short term compensation planning processes for ASG and Board.

$90 million world leader in manufacturing highly-engineered test & measurement instruments and providing related testing and consulting services to blue chip customers in over 70 countries around the globe. 300+ employees with operations located in 10 countries. Portfolio company of Industrial Growth Partners, a San Francisco based private equity firm. (Acquired by Ametek – November 2010). Reporting to Chief Executive Officer and Board of Directors, managed global finance and I/T organization and served as primary interface with debt and equity sponsors of private equity-owned Company.• Together with CEO, led turnaround & strategic realignment of Company with operational improvements increasing EBITDA margins from 13.7% to 21%, increasing sales per employee 40%, reducing working capital 22%, and reducing debt 41%.• Leadership role in successful exit with sale of Company to strategic buyer; achieved >3.6X cash-on-cash return to equity participants in just over 3 years. • Lead role in successful integration of business into Ametek (new owner).• Led identification and implementation of global austerity measures eliminating over $5M of cost in 2009 enabling Company to meet all restrictive debt covenants despite 25% drop in EBITDA.• Participated in lean manufacturing initiatives reducing delivery lead times for instruments > 60% from 11 days to 4 days, creating significant competitive advantage.• Restructured global finance & I/T ; upgraded talent & reduced headcount 35%.• Applied Kaizen & 5S techniques to reduce financial closing process from >18 days to 4 days. • Led global implementation of new ERP & CRM systems on schedule and under budget. • Implemented annual planning process, rolling revenue forecast & management reporting tools to drive accountability to business units & provide better transparency for Board and management team.• Active participant with Board on all matters of strategic and financial significance.

$150 million privately held global technology company providing wide array of internet based products and services including, domain registration, web design, and sophisticated data management and hosting services on four continents. 700+ employees with operations located in 15 countries around the world.Reported to the Chief Executive Officer and Founder. Responsible for all operations with oversight of European & Pan-Asian business units. Managed global organization of 30+ professionals with responsibility for all aspects of finance and accounting, financial systems, treasury, tax and risk management, strategic planning, business development, supply chain management and corporate administration. • Led acquisition, financing and integration strategy for largest acquisition in Company’s history, including capital raise of $86 million. Drove $19 million annual integration savings in nine months.• Built professional accounting, finance, planning and supply chain organization in < 6 months.• Negotiated complex credit agreement and covenants for $86 million private debt placement with hedge fund; closed transaction and funding in less than 60 days from start to finish; renegotiated additional financing to support opportunistic expansion in Asia.• Led RFP negotiation process with major hardware vendor yielding annual savings of $1.5 million.• Developed international tax strategy and entity reorganization to reduce impact of cross border capital movements and lower Company’s effective tax rate.• Established global treasury & banking platform to streamline cash management function and increase controls, cross-border liquidity and transparency of global cash resources.• Led collaboration with IRS and tax advisor on resolution of complicated audit issues from prior tax periods resulting in substantial tax refund.• Renegotiated insurance portfolio resulting in substantially improved coverage and $0.4M lower premiums.

Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, De

A $28 billion diversified healthcare, crop science and engineered materials company with over 90,000 employees and operations in 100+ countries.Reported to the Executive Vice President of Bayer Health Care. Managed organization of 100 professionals with global responsibility for all aspects of finance & accounting, strategic planning, business development, I/T and site operations for a $1 billion medical instruments and technology business. • Led complete overhaul of business strategy & turnaround resulting in record revenue growth and profitability.• One of 20 employees selected to participate in week-long strategy forum with Bayer, A.G. Board of Directors.• Negotiated deal structure with Japanese strategic partner transforming relationship and generating over $20 million in annual savings.• Co-led offshore sourcing strategy for non-core device manufacturing; annual savings $7 million. • Co-sponsored six sigma lean manufacturing projects associated with reagent yields and quality yielding > $6M in annual manufacturing cost reductions. • Reengineered planning & forecasting process reducing cycle time 67%; became model for Bayer Healthcare.• Partnered with Asia/Pacific organization to develop regional market entry strategies for China, India, & Korea.• Directed efforts to identify and acquire next-generation technologies and intellectual property to leap frog competitors.• Partnered with international tax group on strategy to monetize $40 million tax asset in UK.• Led implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance in conjunction with section 404 guidelines.

Merrillville, In, Us

$6 billion integrated energy distribution and service company with over 3.7 million customers and business operations in 11 states.Vice President, Enterprise Risk Management – NiSource, Inc. (2000 to 2002)Reported to the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of NiSource. Managed organization of ten professionals with corporate-wide responsibility for all aspects of market, credit, and regulatory risk management and compliance. President – Commercial Energy Services, Inc. (1999 to 2000)Reported to the CEO of EnergyUSA, a $1 billion dollar subsidiary of NiSource. P&L responsibility for $40 million commercial HVAC engineering, construction and mechanical services business with four operating locations and 150 employees.Chief Financial Officer – EnergyUSA (1997 to 1999)Reported to the CEO of EnergyUSA, a $1 billion non-regulated subsidiary of NiSource, with responsibility for all aspects of finance, information technology and human resources. Managed department of 78 professionals.Vice President and Controller – NIPSCO Energy Services (1996 to 1997)Reported to the Executive Vice President of NiSource with responsibility for management of all finance and accounting activities for $550 million non-regulated subsidiary of NiSource.

Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, Us

A $5 billion global manufacturer of chemicals, specialized industrial machinery and defense industry products.Group Controller – Agricultural Machinery / Packaging and Material Handling Divisions (1994 to 1996)Reported to Group Vice President with finance, accounting and administrative responsibility for $190 million global packaging and material handling, and agricultural equipment businesses, with 13 operations and over 800 employees around the world.Division Controller – Packaging and Material Handling Division (1989 to 1994)Reported to Group Vice President with responsibility for fiscal stewardship, planning and analysis, acquisitions and divestitures, and information systems for $125 million international food and specialty equipment business.Manager Operations Analysis (1988 to 1989)Reported to Director of Finance and corporate Controller, directed staff of newly recruited MBAs to provide analytical support to FMC’s Board of Directors, senior management and operating groups.Senior Business Analyst – Operations Analysis (1987 to 1988)Analyzed and reported monthly financial performance of $1.5 billion defense equipment manufacturing operations for senior management and Board of Directors, and provided analytical and special project support to the operations. Promoted to Department Manager after 10 months.

Masters In Business Administration, Finance, Strategy

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Accounting

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Agribusiness

Certified Public Accountant, Certified Management Accountant