SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gryphon Investors, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, announced today that Wes W. Lucas has joined the firm as a Partner, with responsibilities including co-leadership of the firm’s Industrial Growth Group.
Mr. Lucas, 54, is an accomplished executive with more than 30 years of experience in both the C-suites of global Fortune 500 corporations and private companies. Prior to joining Gryphon, he served as Chief Executive Officer and board member of SIRVA, the leading worldwide relocation and moving company with sales of approximately $2 billion across nearly 1,500 locations globally and approximately 100,000 employees, where he effected a successful turnaround and long-term growth. Previously, Mr. Lucas served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Sun Chemical, the world’s largest producer of printing inks and pigments with approximately $3.5 billion of revenue in 110 countries during his leadership. Other prior positions include Chief Executive Officer and President of Quebecor World, President of Styrenics Nova Chemicals, Co-Founder and CEO of BioMass Capital (a renewable energy company), Founder and CEO of OpenWebs, Co-Chairman of Kodak Polychrome, Vice President of AlliedSignal, and Management Consultant with McKinsey & Company.
David Andrews, Gryphon’s Founder and CEO, said, “We are delighted to welcome Wes as our twelfth Partner. During his career, Wes has worked with and been mentored by some of industry’s most prominent executives, including Larry Bossidy, former CEO of AlliedSignal / Honeywell, and current Chairman of the Board of SIRVA. Wes has an exceptional track record of creating shareholder value in multiple industries through driving earnings growth, gaining market share, fostering technological innovation, developing new products, supporting geographic expansion and, importantly, completing aggressive add-on acquisition strategies. Wes’s background is a strong fit with Gryphon’s strategy of leveraging both investment and operational expertise to partner with management teams and help drive transformational growth across each of our portfolio companies. Wes’s experience as a five-time CEO leading both large and small-sized companies will be invaluable.”
Mr. Lucas holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Lucas will continue to serve on the board of SIRVA, currently sits on the board of Pepperdine University, and is a member of the Business Roundtable.
Mr. Lucas said, “I am very excited to open this next chapter in my career. I look forward to applying my leadership, strategic, and operational skills to help drive value initiatives across the Gryphon portfolio. Gryphon’s truly-exceptional business model in private equity was too unique of an opportunity to pass up. Having interacted with many large and mid-sized PE firms in my career, I consider Gryphon a pioneer in building out successfully an ops group that has integrated fully with deal teams to generate very strong returns for over a decade.”
About Gryphon Investors
Based in San Francisco, Gryphon Investors (www.gryphoninvestors.com) is a leading private equity firm focused on profitably growing and competitively enhancing middle-market companies in partnership with experienced management. For 20 consecutive quarters, Gryphon has been ranked in Preqin’s prestigious quarterly PE report as one of North America’s top-decile buyout firms based on consistency of strong investment returns. Managing over $2.6bn of equity investments and capital since 1997, the firm has an extensive track record of leading equity investments of $50 million to $200 million per portfolio company with sales ranging from approximately $100 million to $500 million. Gryphon prioritizes investment opportunities where it can form proactive partnerships with owners and executives to build leading companies, utilizing Gryphon’s capital, specialized professional resources, and operational expertise. Gryphon closed its fourth private equity buyout fund, Gryphon IV, in November 2016 at $1.1 billion, and raised a $100 million captive mezzanine fund, Gryphon Mezzanine Partners, L.P., in August 2017.
