TEAM

James A. Graner has 41 years of experience working at Graco Inc., a diversified industrials company with $1.3 billion in sales. Most recently, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Graco Inc. from 2005 to 2015, part of an executive leadership team that grew Graco from $732 million to $1.3 billion in sales. Prior to his CFO role, he served as a Vice President and Controller from 1994 to 2005. Prior to 1994, Mr. Graner spent 20 years in various managerial positions in the Treasury, Accounting and Information systems departments at Graco Inc. Mr. Graner serves on the board of directors of Wanner Engineering, Inc. Mr. Graner received a B.S.B. and an M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota.

Mr. Jeyarajah joined the Astor Place Holdings investment team in July 2015. In January 2021, he transitioned to a Senior Advisor role. Prior to joining Astor Place Holdings, Mr. Jeyarajah was the Executive Vice President, Corporate Development at Rexnord Corporation. Prior to Rexnord Corporation, he was a Managing Director at Cypress Group, LLC. Mr. Jeyarajah was also a Managing Director in The Carlyle Group’s US leveraged buyout fund, focused on industrial investments. He serves on the Board of Directors of Richards Industrials, Sentech Inc., and Amsted Industries. Mr. Jeyarajah has a B.A. from Rutgers College and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of Business.

David M. Kelly served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Matthews International Corporation from 1995 to 2006 and as Chairman of the Board from 1996 to 2008. Matthews International is a provider of memorialization products and brand solutions with $1.4 billion in annual sales. Prior to Matthews International, Mr. Kelly worked at Carrier Corporation for 23 years, where he held a variety of executive positions in marketing, finance, manufacturing and operations. Mr. Kelly currently serves on the board of directors of Mestek Inc. and previously served on the boards of Mesa Laboratories Inc., Duquesne Light Holdings Inc., Elliott Company and  Federated Investors, Inc. Mr. Kelly received a B.S. in Physics from Boston College, an M.S. degree in Molecular Biophysics from Yale University, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Morel joined West Pharmaceutical Services Inc.  in 1992 as Director of R&D and served as Chief Executive Officer from April 2002 and Chairman of the Board from March 2003 until his retirement in June 2015. He is widely recognized for his transformation of West and his leadership in the aftermath of the Kinston, NC, plant explosion and fire in 2003. During his tenure Dr. Morel and his team delivered significant shareholder value, generating a ten-fold increase in the company’s share price and market capitalization which grew from $380 million at the beginning of 2002 to more than $4.4 billion at his retirement. Prior to joining West, Dr. Morel developed and managed a broad range of programs involving advanced materials for aerospace and biomedical applications. He has published more than thirty papers dealing with advanced composites and environmental effects on material performance. His aerospace work in the 1980’s resulted in his selection as a finalist for assignment as a NASA Mission Specialist in the Astronaut Office in 1989. Dr. Morel serves on the board of directors of The Stevanato Group S.p.A and Catalent Corporation. Dr. Morel holds a BS degree in Engineering from Lafayette College, an MS in Materials Science and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. He completed The Executive Program at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

Dr. Sirkis served in executive roles at IDEX Corporation from 2016 to 2023, most recently as Vice President of Technology, Strategy and Business Development for the Scientific Fluidics and Optics Group. In that role, he was responsible for organic and inorganic strategy and execution across fluidics, optics and microfluidics technologies in the life sciences, aerospace & defense and semiconductor markets. Previously, he served as Vice President for Life Sciences Fluidics with full P&L responsibilities, as well as Chief Technology Officer for IDEX Health & Science. Prior to joining IDEX Corporation, he was a successful entrepreneur, founding two technology companies. He began his career as a Professor at the University of Maryland. Dr. Sirkis received a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Engineering Science & Mechanics from the University of Florida.

Mr. Wilson was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of PerkinElmer, Inc., a life sciences diagnostics, discovery and analytical solutions company, from 2009 until his retirement in 2018. Prior to joining PerkinElmer, he held key business development and finance roles over 12 years at the Danaher Corporation, including Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations. Previously, Mr. Wilson worked for several years at AlliedSignal, Inc., now Honeywell International Inc., where he served as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer for Commercial Avionics Systems. His earlier experience included financial and controllership positions of increasing responsibility at PepsiCo Inc., as well as roles at E.F. Hutton and Company, and KPMG Peat Marwick. Mr. Wilson is a member of the Board of Directors of Novanta, Inc. a global supplier of core components and subsystems to medical and advanced industrial OEMs, Alkermes plc, a global biopharmaceutical company, and Cabot Corporation, a leading global specialty chemicals and performance materials company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. From 2015 to 2019, he was a member of the Board of Directors of Sparton Corporation where he served as Chairman of the Board for a period of time. Sparton Corporation was a formerly independent public company that designed and manufactured complex electromechanical devices. Mr. Wilson is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Baylor University.