A team with a clear vision to inspire change

Max founded Akoya Capital Partners in 2005. He serves as Managing Partner of the company and is involved in overseeing all aspects of the operation.

Max has sourced, evaluated, valued, and structured numerous investment opportunities across a variety of industries including manufacturing, professional information services, consumer foods and specialty chemicals. Max is uniquely expert at partnering with industry-leading executives to develop proprietary investment opportunities for family office and private equity co-sponsorship. The strategies he has developed and teams he has partnered with have created substantial shareholder value. Since its inception, Akoya has completed 20 platform investments and numerous add-on acquisitions across the portfolio.

Prior to forming Akoya Capital, Max spent over 20 years in talent acquisition, assessment and human capital consulting, most as the founder and leader of the Carlyle Group, a leading Midwest boutique retained executive search and consulting firm. In 1998, Max sold Carlyle Group to The Whitney Group, creating a top-ten global executive search firm with eight offices worldwide. During his tenure with The Whitney Group, he was elected vice chairman and served on Whitney’s board of directors and lead their global private equity practice.
Max is an active member of the Family Office Club, Association for Corporate Growth, and Vistage, a peer mentoring group for CEO’s. Additionally, Max works closely with our portfolio companies Edge Adhesives and NSA Industries.

Max is also the former Chairman of the Century Foundation, a non-profit board focused on the development of Lane Tech College Prep High School and remains actively involved on the board.

Max works closely with our portfolio companies Edge Adhesives, NSA Industries, TTG and NutriScience.

Carr joined Akoya Capital in 2010 as a leader of its transaction team.

Over 20+ year principal investing career, Carr has developed an outstanding ability to source, structure, and execute complex transactions. His responsibilities include deal sourcing, transaction execution and post-closing monitoring of portfolio companies he has closed and he has closed numerous investment opportunities across a variety of industries including manufacturing, business services, and consumer products. He has also successfully raised a committed investment fund from 16 institutional investors.

Carr began his career with Chase Manhattan Bank and Freeman Securities. He has held senior positions with the private equity firms Allied Capital and Reliant Equity Investors.

Carr served on the Board of Saint Ignatius College Prep in Chicago. He has a BA in Finance from Morehouse College, a JD from George Washington University, and an MBA from Wharton Business School. Additionally, Carr works closely with our portfolio company Fresh and Ready Foods.

Jim joined Akoya Capital in 2009.

Jim is a very experienced sales and P/L leader across two industries within professional services with a strong track record of revenue and profit growth. He is also a human capital and organizational effectiveness expert, having built and led a very successful organizational consulting business and having served as the chief learning officer of a global professional services firm.

Jim’s significant corporate experiences have been with Johnson & Higgins which, during his tenure there, was the largest privately held corporate insurance brokerage firm in the world and, most recently, with Right Management Consultants, one of the largest organizational and career management firms in the world, where he was one of the leaders of its global organizational consulting practice and leader of one of its largest and most profitable business units.

Over the course of his career, Jim has served on several not-for-profit boards and has been a frequent speaker on the subjects of organizational performance and business leadership at charitable, professional, and business events. He has also served on the faculty of the American Management Association. Jim has a BA in Economics from Bowdoin College. Additionally, Jim works closely with our portfolio companies, Disti, Indigo, and Converged Security Solutions.

Don joined Akoya Capital Partners in 2010 and serves as its Executive Chair and Managing Director, Specialty Chemicals Sector Leader.

Don has had a 40 plus year career in the petrochemical and oil industries; in operations, sales and marketing, acquisitions, divestments, and business management. He has successfully integrated over $8 billion in chemical businesses and grew a major business unit from $1.5 billion in sales and $150 million in EBITDA to $2.7 billion in sales and $279 million in EBITDA in five years.

Don spent the majority of his career with Texaco and Huntsman where he most recently served as COO and President of its Performance Products Division.

Don has served on various Boards over the course of his career. Don served on the Boards of our portfolio companies ICM Products and Milamar Coatings. He has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University.

Lou became affiliated with Akoya Capital in 2010 and serves as its Consumer Foods Sector Leader.

Having spent over 28 years in the industry, Lou has deep domain expertise and executive leadership capability in consumer foods; including, marketing and brand management, strategy, distribution, private label, ethnic, and dairy, and in implementation and change management.

Lou has had large company sales, marketing, and branding experiences at both Quaker Oats Company and Kraft Foods, Inc followed by executive-level experiences as EVP, Marketing, Sales & Distribution for Mission Foods, Group President of Dean Foods Company, President/CEO of Federated Group and, most recently as President of Consumer Foods for ConAgra.

Lou currently serves on the Boards of Ryder Systems, Inc., Auto Zone our portfolio company Eddy Packing Company and Fresh and Ready Foods. Lou is also President of Nieto Advisory, LLC. He has a BA from the University of Chicago and an MBA from Harvard University.

Before joining Akoya Capital, John spent more than 40 years in the in electronic information services and IT industries.  He has designed, launched, and managed some of the most innovative and well known information services in the professional communities including the Engineering Village, Science Direct, Scirus, Scopus, and many other electronic information services dating back to the early days of the online and CDROM industries.

John served for several years as CEO of Elsevier Inc. and managing director of the NYSE-listed Reed Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher and information services company for journal and related scientific, technical and medical content. At Reed Elsevier, he oversaw its expansive electronic publishing portfolio, with a program staff of 3,000 and revenues exceeding $1 billion. He was previously CEO of Engineering Information, which he helped turnaround before being acquired by Reed Elsevier.

John has served and presently serves on a variety corporate and industry Board of Directors, including  the British Standards Institute (BSI) Group (a UK Royal Charter Company),  the American Institute of Physics Publishing (AIP, a non-profit professional society), serves as Chairman of the Board,  National Technical Information Service (NTIS), a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce and was recently appointed as Chairman to the board of Research Solutions, Inc. (OTCQB: RSSS).

John has authored two books for information executives: Infonomics and the Business of Free and Scholarly Communications: From Content as King to Content as Kingmaker.

John currently serves as Chairman of the board of directors on our portfolio companies DiSTI and Converged Security Solutions.

Denny Chandler joined Akoya in 2014 and is our Sector Leader for Consumer Products. He has a 30-year track record of leading consumer products businesses successfully through transition; and, building market share and profits in challenging competitive circumstances. His experience spans globally and includes private equity, turnarounds, restructurings, strategic realignments, M&A and start-ups.

Before joining Akoya Denny led privately held Identity Group Holdings through a financial restructuring and successful turnaround as its CEO and member of the Board of Directors.

Prior experience includes a successful fifteen-year career at ACCO Brands. As President and Chief Operating Officer from 2005 through 2008, he was a key member of the executive team that successfully led the spin-off of ACCO from Fortune Brands, ACCO’s merger with General Binding Co. and its ultimate transition to a NYSE publicly listed company.

Before ACCO Brands, Denny held several executive level positions including Division President at Bell + Howell, VP Brand Marketing for Walt Disney Consumer Products and VP & General Manager at Wilson Sporting Goods.

Denny earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a degree in marketing from Indiana University. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Akoya’s portfolio company Indigo Signworks and on the board of Fiber Mark and SED International.

Our Industrial Products Sector Leader is Tim Gardner. Tim has almost 40 years of experience in leading industrial companies, most recently as Executive Vice President of ITW. Tim’s experience includes leading acquisitions and divestitures, driving growth and innovation and improving the bottom line performance of a broad range of packaging and industrial companies. Tim’s early career includes leadership roles with Clarcor and Continental Can Company.

Mark Breckheimer joined Akoya in 2015 and is our sector leader for Industrial Distribution.

Mark is a senior executive with 38 plus years of experience in the Industrial Distribution sector with emphasis on Metals Distribution. He has a proven track record of partnering with boards of directors, private equity sponsors, management teams and lenders to create and unlock the value of distribution companies for their shareholders through robust organic growth and the integration of accretive acquisitions. He is highly experienced at creating and releasing value by increasing value add commercial activities, promoting lean business processes and the development of management teams and advanced business processes.

In his most recent role at Kloeckner, Mark was instrumental in completing and integrating numerous acquisitions leading the group to become the third largest metal distributor and processor in the U.S. by volume while increasing value-added business by 65% resulting in a 4 time EBITDA improvement during the period from 2011 to 2014. Prior to Kloeckner, as President of Primary Steel LLC and he and his management team were able to grow the company both organically and through acquisition from three locations with sales of under $100 million to seven locations with sales in excess of $500 million. During that period EBITDA margins increased from 3% to 12%. Over the course of his career Mark has been involved in increasing the sales of his combined responsibilities by 21 times while increasing profitability by 32 times. In 2007 together with a group of private equity partners and the management team of Primary, the company was beneficially sold to Kloeckner Namasco Corporation. Mark currently serves as Chairman of the Board of our portfolio company, NSA.

Mark has served on a variety of industrial and industry boards including the holding companies for which he was either employed by or a principle of. Mark holds a BSBA degree from Bucknell University.

Dave was recently CEO of Edge Adhesives, where under his leadership the company went from a break-even business to a profitable company that tripled its sales in three years due to a combination of strong organic growth and the acquisition of three strategic businesses.  Dave continues to serve on the board of Edge Adhesives, which is a portfolio company of Akoya.

Before coming to Edge in 2011, Dave was President of NorthStar Chemicals, a subsidiary of 3M which manufactures pressurized canister systems for the delivery of liquid adhesive, coating and other chemical products.  Prior to NorthStar, Dave worked for the 3M parent company for 25 years in numerous sales, marketing, technical, international and general management roles in the Industrial Adhesives & Tapes and Memory Technologies Divisions.   He joined 3M after graduating with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Dave has served on the board of the Adhesives and Sealants Council for 9 years and was ASC Board Chair in 2007 and 2008.

Greg Vas Nunes joined Akoya in 2018 as a Managing Director of Specialty Chemicals. 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 companies, private equity owned and joint ventures across the specialty chemicals, building materials, apparel/textile fiber and automotive sectors. Additionally, he brings vast multinational experience leading business units for both Western and Asian multinational companies. Greg has spent more than a decade living abroad in Europe and Asia Pacific.

Most recently Greg was Senior Vice President for Univar and an Officer of the Company. Univar a $9B public company 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 $2B of specialty products in the USA from premier global chemical producers along with $700MM 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. Greg held P&L accountability for over 200MM€ 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 P&L accountability across numerous industrial and ingredient branded businesses. Most notable were DuPont’s textile fiber businesses (Lycra®, Coolmax® and Tactel®) where Greg held $500MM P&L roles in each region of the globe serving the apparel industry. Greg also held key leadership roles with the Corian® surfacing business in Europe and the USA, Engineering Plastics, Lucite® acrylics and Kalrez® perfluoroelastomers in the USA.

Greg is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a member of their Phalanx Honor Society. He was an active member of operating boards with joint venture companies in the USA, Japan, Italy and Mexico along with advisory board roles in European and USA industry associations.

Robert (Bob) May joined Akoya Capital Partners in 2018 and serves as Managing Director for plastics, polymers, and other related specialty chemicals.

Bob has 35+ years of executive leadership experience in the plastics and chemicals industries. He has held senior-level global business management, sales & marketing, operations and strategic planning roles at The Dow Chemical Company, BP-Amoco and Georgia Gulf where he had P&L responsibilities for several $1.0+ billion global commodity plastics businesses.

Bob has extensive experience with commodity plastics and engineering resins for the packaging, consumer & durable goods, building products, automotive and medical markets. He has also worked for Portion Packaging, Campbell Soup Company and American Cyanamid. Most recently Bob was the President of Premier Polymers, a privately held start-up plastics trading and distribution business in North America.

Bob is a results-driven leader and a seasoned executive with experience in restructuring and transforming underperforming businesses. Throughout his career Bob has had success in achieving significant sales revenue growth, improving EBITDA performance and delivering exceptional value.
Bob has a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Drexel University and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan. He is an avid sports fan and enjoys traveling and playing golf.

Sal Guccione joined Akoya in 2018 as a Managing Director of Specialty Chemicals. He brings more than 30 years of leadership experience, including CEO, CFO and head of strategic planning/M&A in the specialty chemicals and pharmaceutical ingredients and services industries. His experience includes public and private equity-backed companies, as well as operating partner at the private equity level. He has significant company build-up experience for domestic and international businesses. Sal has been instrumental in building and managing businesses focused on personal care ingredients, nutritional ingredients, active pharmaceutical ingredients, pharmaceutical research services, biotechnology research products, surfactant chemicals and adhesives and sealants.

Most recently, Sal was President and Chief Executive Officer of Aceto Corporation, a $600+ million revenue company focused on specialty chemicals, nutritional ingredients and pharmaceutical products. Prior to Aceto, Sal was Operating Partner at Arsenal Capital Partners, an industrial and healthcare focused private equity investment firm with approximately $3 billion in equity raised. Sal played an important role in Arsenal’s successful platform investment in Royal Adhesives and Sealants, originally a relatively small manufacturer and marketer of adhesives and sealant products which grew to over $600 million in revenue under Arsenal Capital. Prior to that, Sal served as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of WIL Research Company, a private equity-backed multinational contract research, development and manufacturing organization that served the pharmaceuticals and chemicals industries. WIL was purchased for $105 million, went through a strategic investment and growth period, and ultimately sold for $500 million, achieving a 63% IRR.

Sal was also Executive Vice President, Strategy, Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Corporate Development of Cambrex Corporation, a publicly-traded $1+ billion market value international manufacturer and marketer of active pharmaceutical ingredients and biotechnology products. Before Cambrex, Sal was Vice President and general manager of ISP Personal Care, a global developer, manufacturer and marketer of specialty chemical ingredients for the personal care industry.

Sal holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA in Finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Mark Noetzel joined Akoya in 2019 as a Managing Director of Specialty Chemicals. He has more than 35 years of experience leading chemical and energy businesses across the globe, ranging in size from the Fortune 100 to private equity-owned middle market companies to venture-backed startups. He brings a strategic understanding of supply chains and a deep commitment to operational excellence to each of his businesses.

Mark was with BP and Amoco for 26 years, leading multi-billion dollar businesses in the fuels and chemical industry in the US, Europe and Asia. These roles included Group Vice President with responsibility for BP’s $65 billion revenue retail operations, fuels transport and wholesaling in the US, Europe and Asia. Mark also had responsibility for fuels technology development. Previously, he was Group Vice President with responsibility for Air BP aviation fuels and fuel operations in China, Africa and Australasia. Prior to that, he was Group Vice President for various chemical businesses across a broad range of manufacturing and marketing activities. He was instrumental in the growth of Amoco’s chemical business in East Asia where he lived for almost six years.

After retiring from BP in 2007, Mark was CEO of a biofuels start-up and a board director of several early-stage chemical technology companies. He served as a board director of Axiall Corporation, created by the merger of Georgia Gulf Corporation and the commodity chemicals business of PPG, until Axiall’s acquisition by Westlake Chemical. He has worked extensively on operational excellence and management development matters with a private equity firm.

Mark is a board director of Aspen Aerogels (NYSE: ASPN). He also consults widely in the fuels and chemical industries on both strategic and transactional issues.

Mark holds a BA in international relations/political science from Yale University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mark is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Advisors of Catholic Charities of Chicago. Mark and wife Karen have three adult children.

Jim has spent more than 35 years in electronic components, software, medical devices and electrical distribution.

After an early career with DuPont in the Electronics Interconnect and Materials division, Jim joined the regional operation of the Thorson company, the largest electronics agency in the western US, at that time representing Apple, Motorola, GE and Intel.

Jim and his partners subsequently built or acquired additional complimentary businesses in Electrical Distribution, Contract Manufacturing, Silicon Design, Automation and Materials Distribution.

After a series of successful exits, Jim spent time in executive roles for companies in Private Equity, Investment Banking, IoT Software and Project Management.
Jim holds a BA degree from Penn State University in Political Science and an MBA in Technology Management from University of Phoenix.

Pat has over 30 years of experience in the packaging and processing machinery industry. He has a solid combination of technical, commercial and operation skill sets; to include multi-business group P&L experience. Pat has held positions in engineering, R&D, sales & marketing, project management, and executive leadership.

He is an accomplished executive with a track record of success leading a variety of business units and operational departments that have consistently exceeded targeted goals. Pat is particularly skilled at developing and leading high performance cultures by assembling cross-functional teams that have always set their focus on business-critical deliverables. Pat possesses a keen understanding of the complex interrelationships inherent in fast-paced manufacturing enterprises. He has a broad and diversified background at all levels of leadership, sales, marketing, process optimization, engineering, strategic planning, P&L growth, negotiations, and team development.

Prior to launching a successful consulting business, Pat was the President and COO of a privately held End of Line automation manufacturer. The company’s customer base predominantly included many of the Fortune 500 food and beverage manufacturers. Pat held this position for more than 10 years achieving an exemplary record of revenue and profit growth during his tenure. Pat has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from University of Central Florida.

Liz joined Akoya Capital in 2005 and leads the company’s talent management function.

Bringing more than 20 years experience to her role, Liz is an expert at executive talent identification and assessment. She has focused her work on assessing and placing CEOs, board directors, and other senior-level executives within numerous high-growth, investor backed companies and Fortune 2000 organizations.

Prior to joining Akoya, Liz was a Vice President with the Carlyle Group where she was a leader in the firm’s technology, corporate and professional services practices. She was also a Vice President with A.T. Kearney within their management consulting and executive search practices and also a Director with Wujcik & Associates, a Chicago-based boutique executive search firm.

Liz has an BA in Political Science from DePaul University and an MS in Industrial Relations from Loyola University.

Pat joined Akoya Capital in 2013 and is involved in investment due diligence, financial modeling and valuation, industry research, transaction sourcing and supporting portfolio company management teams.

Prior to joining Akoya, Pat was an associate at Torch Lake Capital Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm, where he was responsible for transaction execution and portfolio company management. Pat was previously an analyst at Pfingsten Partners, an operationally focused private equity firm also based in Chicago.

Pat has a BS degree in finance from the University of Illinois, and was a recipient of the Western Golf Association’s Chick Evans Caddie Scholarship. He is a member of the Rush University Medical Center Associates Board and the Evans Scholars Foundation Leadership Council.

Lukasz joined Akoya Capital in 2012 and is involved in conducting financial and valuation analysis, due diligence, research and providing support to the management team.

Prior to joining Akoya, Lukasz worked as a project analyst with a Private Equity Firm Thoma Bravo, LLC and as a research intern with a Private Equity Firm Pfingsten Partners, LLC. Before that, he was an intern in the Global Wealth Management Group at Merrill Lynch.

Lukasz has a BS degree in Business and Economics with a double concentration in Finance and Accounting from North Park University.

Karen joined Akoya Capital in 2005 and manages the operations within the company. She is also actively involved in all business development and marketing efforts within the company.

Prior to joining Akoya, Karen was the Office Manager of the Carlyle Group where she was responsible for all operations within Carlyle.

Karen is involved in numerous charitable activities including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), Friends for the Cure, a grass roots effort to help fund University of Chicago Kovler Diabetes Center research and with Saint Ignatius College Prep.

Lucas joined Akoya Capital in 2018 and is involved in conducting financial and valuation analysis, due diligence, research and providing support to the management team.

Prior to joining Akoya, Lucas held multiple investment banking internships with Robert W. Baird & Co., a leading middle market investment bank and BCC Advisers, a regional investment bank. In these roles, Lucas primarily focused on executing mergers & acquisitions and capital raises.

Lucas holds a B.S. in Finance and Business Economics from Iowa State University.