Movers & Shakers: Fluid Handling Appointments, Awards & Acquisitions for January 2015

Minnesota Rubber and Plastics was awarded the Supplier Quality Excellence Award by General Motors. (Left to right): Tony Marsala, GM Director, Thad O’Brien, MR&P Senior Account Manager, Sid Schroff, MR&P Director of Operations, River Falls, Beverly J Gaskin, GM Executive Director.

Awards

William L. Clippard, III Honored by The Ohio State University

William L. Clippard, (Bill), Chairman of the Board, Clippard Instrument Laboratory, Inc., was recently honored by The Ohio State University Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering for his commitment to the field of engineering. The university honored Clippard by dedicating "Lab Space" within the Mechanical Engineering Building as "The Clippard Lab," in honor of William L. Clippard, III, class of 1963. The new "Clippard Lab" will provide students the ability to gain exposure to real world challenges while learning leading-edge techniques through hands-on skill sets which has been a passion of Clippard’s for years. Since his graduation from OSU’s Mechanical engineering program, Clippard has applied his creative mind along with his engineering disciplines to design and create many unique products and manufacturing processes for Clippard. Those same products and processes are used by many industries throughout the world today and serve as the catalyst in establishing Clippard as a world leader in miniature pneumatics.

Minnesota Rubber and Plastics Receives GM Supplier Quality Excellence Award

Minnesota Rubber and Plastics has been awarded the Supplier Quality Excellence Award by General Motors. The annual award is presented to suppliers achieving zero defects in a year. "These suppliers have demonstrated their commitment to quality excellence and their outstanding performance is essential to GM’s efforts to provide its customers with the best product and services in the industry," said Sheri Hickok, GM Executive Director of Supplier Quality. Minnesota Rubber and Plastics formulates high-performance rubber and plastic parts for the transportation, water, power, medical and pharmaceutical markets.

Appointments

NewAge Industries Announces New Roles for Two Key Team Members

McDevitt, a 12-year employee, is now NewAge’s Assistant Inside Sales Manager, a new role developed to provide support to the company’s Inside Sales Manager, Annabelle Black. McDevitt will continue to service some of NewAge’s most critical accounts as he assists Black with special projects and takes on management responsibilities. McDevitt’s previous title was Technical Sales Representative.

Cooper Standard Names Campbell as Chief Infrastructure Officer; Hardt as Chief Financial Officer

Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc., the parent company of Cooper-Standard Automotive Inc. has appointed Allen J. Campbell as executive vice president and chief infrastructure officer with concentration in the Asia-Pacific region, and Matthew W. Hardt as executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO). Hardt will join Cooper Standard as executive vice president on Feb. 2 and become CFO on March 2 when Campbell transitions to the chief infrastructure officer position stationed in the Asia-Pacific region. Hardt will be located at the company’s world headquarters in Novi, Michigan. As members of the company’s Global Leadership Team, both executives will report directly to Jeffrey Edwards, chairman and CEO. is a global supplier of systems and components for the automotive industry.

PSG Names Craig Paulson Vice President of Human Resources

PSG, a Dover Company and a manufacture of industrial pumps and related flow control technologies, has appointed Craig Paulson Vice President of Human Resources. In this position, Paulson will be responsible for aligning the Human Resources strategies with PSG business strategies as the company continues to grow organically and through acquisition. He will report directly to Karl Buscher, President of PSG.

NSF International Appoints General Manager of Drinking Water Filtration Products

Global public health organization NSF International has appointed Tina Yerkes, Ph.D., to General Manager of Filtration Products under its Global Water Division. Yerkes will help NSF International grow its testing, auditing and certification services for point of use (POU) and point of entry (POE) drinking water treatment and filtration products. Yerkes has more than 20 years of experience in strategic business unit operations with an emphasis in water quality issues, wetlands conservation and environmental education. She has held leadership positions at non-profit organizations with large, diverse program areas driving environmental awareness, research initiatives and conservation efforts. She most recently served as Chief Operating Officer of The Stewardship Network and also spent more than 12 years in management roles at Ducks Unlimited, culminating in Director of Conservation Programs.

The Coastal Flow Measurement family of companies announced that Jayson Payne has been promoted to the position of Vice President of Digital Operations. Payne has been with Coastal Flow for 16 years, working in a variety of gas measurement positions involving management, customer service, and technical support activities. Most recently, as iMeasurement Manager, he has spearheaded the seamless integration of all company measurement functions while also directing field technicians and internal IT operations, and he’s been instrumental in the development and rapid growth of the BirdDog™ Information Systems division. In his new role as VP of Digital Operations, Mr. Payne will be responsible for coordinating the companywide deployment and use of all digital information systems, while continuing to lead IT and field services and remaining integrally involved with BirdDog Information Systems.InterCloud Systems Announces Appointment of Louis PhilippeValois

InterCloud Systems has appointed Louis Philippe Valois to the position of CMO & SVP Global Communication Service Provider (CSP) Sales. Before joining InterCloud Systems, Valois served as Vice President of Americas Sales at Tektronix Communications, a Danaher Company and global supplier of network monitoring and management solutions and services. InterCloud Systems Inc. is a single-source provider of end-to-end information technology (IT) and next-generation network solutions.

BakerHostetler Adds Leading Scientist, Energy Transactional Attorney to Expanding Energy and Shale Team

Energy attorney and geologist Michael P. Joy has joined the Denver office of BakerHostetler as a partner in the Litigation Group and Energy and Shale team. Joy comes to BakerHostetler from the Pittsburgh office of Reed Smith, LLP. He is regarded as one of the nation’s top authorities on the Marcellus and Utica shales, having written his Ph.D. dissertation in Geology on the Trenton and Black River group carbonate to Utica Shale transition throughout New York and Pennsylvania. Joy joins a number of recent key additions to the firm’s Energy and Shale team, including co-leader of the firm’s Energy and Shale practice team, L. Poe Leggette and his team in Denver, as well as energy and transactional partner Laura McMahon in Houston. Both joined the firm from Norton Rose Fulbright. International energy litigator Sashe Dimitroff joined the Houston office in October from Haynes and Boone.

Acquisitions, Expansions & Business Deals

Graco Announces 4 Acquisitions to Drive Long-Term Growth in the Company’s Industrial Products Segment

Graco Inc. has agreed to acquire the stock of Pennsylvania-based High Pressure Equipment (HiP) company for $160 million. Headquartered in Erie, Pennsylvania, HiP designs and manufactures valves, fittings, and other flow control equipment engineered to perform in ultra-high pressure environments, from 10,000 to 150,000 PSI. In addition, Graco announced that it has agreed to acquire the Utah-based White Knight Fluid Handling business. The Company expected this acquisition to close in early January. Graco also closed on two other acquisitions in December 2014. The Company acquired the assets of Ontario, Canada-based GeoBlaster Equipment Sales & Services Inc., and Brazil-based Multimaq-Pistolas e Equipamentos Para Pintura Ltda (Multimaq). Aggregate sales and EBITDA of the four businesses in the most recent 12-month period were approximately $50 million and $17 million, respectively. The combined cash purchase price to acquire the four businesses is approximately $185 million, with additional consideration to the former owners of White Knight Fluid Handling should the business achieve certain growth targets.

Metso Sells Process Automation Systems Business to Valmet

Metso Corporation and Valmet Corporation have entered into an agreement on the sale of Metso’s Process Automation Systems (PAS) business to Valmet with a transaction value of 340 million euros. The divestment is in line with Metso’s new strategy announced in July 2014, under which Metso says it will focus on the product and services businesses for the mining, aggregates, and oil & gas industries. The transaction, which is estimated to close by April 1, 2015, is subject to approval by competition authorities.

Curtiss-Wright Sells Cimarron Energy Inc. & Douglas Equipment Business

Curtiss-Wright Corporation announced that it has sold its Cimarron Energy Inc. business to Turnbridge Capital LLC for $100 million in cash. Cimarron provides production, processing and environmental equipment and solutions for the production of oil and gas. Turnbridge is a private equity firm that invests in middle-market businesses that are directly or indirectly dependent on energy and energy-related infrastructure spending. Curtiss-Wright also announced that it has sold the assets of its Douglas Equipment (Douglas) business to a subsidiary of Textron Inc. Founded in 1947, Douglas, located in Cheltenham, U.K., is a supplier of commercial aviation ground support vehicles, including a range of towbarless and conventional aircraft tractors and runway friction measuring devices.

LQT Industries Completes Sale of Subarctic Facility
LQT Industries, a full-service provider of high-quality accommodation facilities, design-build construction services, and support services to the oil and gas industry, has completed the sale of the company’s subarctic aluminum accommodations facility to a global energy company. The subarctic facility was being leased to the client by LQT to house 96 personnel on a platform located off the coast of Sakhalin Island, Russia. After three (months of utilization on the platform, the client finalized the agreement with LQT to acquire the facility.  The construction of the facility was completed in June 2014 at LQT’s fabrication facility in Abbeville, LA and reassembled in Russia in September of 2014.