News

Greg Vas Nunes Joins Akoya Capital as New Specialty Chemicals Executive

June 20, 2018, Chicago, IL – Akoya is excited to announce that it has partnered with Greg Vas Nunes, a highly experienced executive in the specialty chemicals industry, to pursue new platform acquisitions.

Greg brings more than 35 years of global leadership experience in sales, distribution, marketing and manufacturing, from the chemical and material industries. His experience includes public and private equity owned companies, and joint ventures across the specialty chemicals, building materials, apparel/textile fiber and automotive sectors.

Most recently Greg was Senior Vice President for Univar, a $9 billion public company that is the largest chemical distributor in North America. Greg was responsible for the company’s Digital and Customer Experience investments and prior to this role served as President of the USA’s Specialty Products and Services businesses. He held P&L responsibility for over $2 billion of specialty products in the USA from premier global chemical producers along with $700 million of value add service businesses including environmental services.

Before joining Univar, Greg served as President for the European region of a leading global industrial fiber producer, Performance Fibers, based in Luxembourg. Mr. Vas Nunes held profit & loss accountability for over €200 million in revenue and three manufacturing locations in Germany and France. Before this he served as President for subsidiaries of two major Korean multinationals, Hyosung and LG in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas serving the apparel and building materials industries, respectively.

Greg launched his career with DuPont where he spent over 20 years in management and senior leadership roles with profit & loss accountability across numerous industrial businesses. Most notable were DuPont’s Apparel textile fiber businesses where Greg held $500 million P&L roles in each region of the globe serving the activewear, intimate apparel, legwear and ready-to-wear market segments. He drove pull-through marketing efforts of their ingredient fibers – Lycra®, Coolmax® and Tactel® – with leading apparel brands. Greg also held key operations and marketing management roles for fluoropolymer businesses (Kalrez® and Teflon®) marketed to the chemical, automotive, aerospace and electronics industries.

Seeking Platform Investments In Specialty Chemicals

Akoya is interested in pursuing a wide range of businesses in specialty chemicals but Greg will have particular interest in the following segments:

  • Value Added Chemical Distribution
  • Building Materials – Solid Surface, Engineered Quartz and Cast Polymers
  • Technical Textiles – Apparel and Industrial Fabrics
  • Fluoro Polymers and Elastomers
  • Custom Blending Formulators

Ideal Target Company Characteristics

  • $20 million to $200 million of sales
  • $3 million+ of EBITDA
  • Established competency in formulations
  • Family held, owner/operator run, corporate carve-outs
  • Management wants to remain with the business & open to re-investment

Akoya Capital is a sector focused investment firm that creates and nurtures partnerships between management and capital. With industry leading sector leaders, proprietary platform organizations, experienced management teams and co-investors, we collaborate on compelling value creation opportunities. Together, we develop and execute industry sector acquisition strategies that deliver significant, measurable value for management, partners and shareholders.

We will consider smaller companies on a selective basis or as an add-on acquisition. In addition to Specialty Chemicals, Akoya seeks investment opportunities in the following sectors:

  • Industrial Manufacturing & Distribution
  • Consumer Foods/Products
  • Professional Information Services

CONTACT US

If you know of a company that fits this profile, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss it with you.

Please contact Lucas Wrona at 312-546-8306 (lwrona@akoyacapital.com)