Board Value

Practical, strategic, and built from experience.

Companies don't fail because their leaders aren't smart. They stall because the playbook that got them here won't get them there. I've lived through every major inflection point - distressed startup, growth phase, ownership transition, and public company exit - and I know what each stage actually requires.

Board - PMMI

Packaging & Processing Technologies · ~1,000 member companies · 4 years

Board - Goin' Far Foundation

Scholarship fund for children of deceased Phi Tau members · Since 2021

Operator Governed

President & majority owner, NCC Automated Systems · 17 years · Both sides of the table

"I know what each side needs from the other."

The inflection point problem

What works at $6M breaks at $20M. What scales to $40M would have killed the business at the start. Every stage demands different systems, different priorities, and different conversations at the board level.

What I've learned drives results

After 30 years of business, 17 as an owner, and five M&A transactions: alignment, ownership mindset, and clarity of execution. Keep the customer as the north star. Ask more than you answer. That's the lens I bring.

How I work with leadership teams

01

Simplify

Cut through the noise. Begin with the end in mind - define what success actually looks like, then build backward. Vague vision doesn't inspire anyone.

02

Focus

Ask more than I answer. The customer is the north star - every strategic question eventually comes back to it. Teams that stay close to that answer move faster.

03

Execute

People buy in to what they help create. Build accountability collaboratively - and when something goes wrong, own it at the top before looking anywhere else.

"The ESOP was a big unlock for me - when people feel ownership, performance changes. That's not a soft observation. It showed up in the numbers."

Kevin Mauger - on the shift from engagement to ownership culture

Areas of board contribution

01

Turnaround & growth

Operator experience

I acquired NCC when it was $1M insolvent and grew it from $6M to $40M over twelve years. NCC was a full manufacturing operation - mechanical, systems, and controls engineers; a machine shop, sheet metal, welding, and electrical assembly. MTO and production parts. Real operational complexity. That arc required reading the business at each stage.

  • Distressed acquisition: diagnosed core issues quickly, stabilized within the first year
  • Sustained growth: $6M to $40M without outside capital - organic, disciplined, data-informed
  • Stage-specific leadership: different systems, priorities, and team structures at each phase

02

Customer focus & strategy

North star thinking

The customer is the north star - not as a cliche but as an operating discipline. Every strategic question eventually comes back to it. I ask more than I answer, and assumptions cost more than curiosity every single time.

  • Market positioning: moved NCC from generalist to category leader by listening to what customers couldn't get elsewhere
  • Product development: built the ophthalmic conveyor business around a specific customer pain point - not an internal assumption
  • Sales discipline: the right question beats the best pitch. Always.

03

Culture & people

Ownership mindset

Culture is the most underrated variable on a board's risk register. I've built it intentionally - assuming best intent, making it personal, and holding myself accountable first when things go wrong. Business is personal. Always has been.

  • Servant leadership practiced as an operating discipline, not a philosophy seminar
  • Open-book management: financial literacy built across the entire organization
  • Accountability without blame: set people up first - then ask what went wrong, not who

04

ESOP & ownership transitions

Rare perspective

Fewer than 0.1% of US businesses have an ESOP - and almost none did it mid-career as a growth strategy. I executed an ESOP mid-stride as a deliberate growth strategy. The $17.5M distributed at exit proved the thesis.

  • ESOP structure: mechanics, legal framework, valuation, and cultural rollout
  • Ownership culture: built the mindset before the structure - the ESOP formalized what already existed
  • $17.5M distributed to fewer than 100 employees at exit

05

M&A & transactions

Five transactions

Five transactions across both sides of the table. Each required a different analytical lens - valuation, structure, integration, governance. Then two years inside the public company that bought us.

  • Two acquisitions as an employee at NCC prior to purchasing the company
  • Bought NCC from a distressed ownership group - structured the deal under pressure
  • Flexmove Americas JV: international joint venture with Malaysian partners - conceived, built, and exited
  • Sold NCC to ATS Automation - $40M exit to a public strategic acquirer
  • Post-acquisition: two years inside ATS understanding public company governance firsthand

06

Operating systems & scale

EOS practitioner

Operational rigor is a strategic question. I've built the systems - scorecards, meeting cadence, issue resolution, accountability structures - that let a board assess health quickly and give leadership room to execute without noise.

  • EOS implementation from the ground up - practitioner, not a consultant's recommendation
  • Metrics that matter: built scorecards that surfaced problems before they became crises
  • Systems outlasted my tenure - the culture and process continued post-exit

07

AI fluency

Applied daily

Daily user across Claude and ChatGPT. Completed a 28-day AI course. TLDR Newsletter every morning.

But the credential isn't the consumption - it's the application. AI is only as good as the questions you ask it. So is business. I use AI as a thinking partner and decision accelerator, not a search engine - building context, pressure-testing outputs, and iterating until the answer is actually useful. Most users stop at the first response.

Thirty years of business experience taught me what questions to ask. AI training taught me how to ask them better. That combination is rare - and directly transferable to a board conversation.

Most boards don't have someone who's in it every day applying it to real decisions. I am.

A focused practice - by design

Founder-led & family-owned businesses

I've been in the seat. I know what it costs to make hard calls when it's your name on the door and your family at stake.

ESOP companies

Almost no one on a board has actually done this. I have - structure, rollout, culture, and the exit that proved the strategy.

PE direct deals

If you're doing direct deals and need operating perspective at the board level - someone who's been inside the machine - that's the conversation I'm interested in.

I work with a small number of companies.

Having stepped away from day-to-day operations, I now focus entirely on a small number of board engagements where I can genuinely contribute - not just attend meetings. If that sounds like a fit, let's find out.

Let's talk ->