Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
9/26/2014
In the latest in a series of recent management moves, Kurion announced this week that Stephen Wright will serve as the company’s new Chief Financial Officer. Wright previously served as CFO and senior vice president at AeroVironment Inc., where he helped the company undergo an initial public offering, and served as COO at Materia, Inc. According to Kurion, Wright “will develop and guide the company’s financial strategies as the company continues on an acquisitive trajectory.” “We are excited to welcome Steve to Kurion at this important moment for the company,” Kurion CEO Bill Gallo said in a statement. “Kurion’s global growth in the application of game-changing technologies has propelled us to a key role in the resolution of nuclear waste issues. Steve’s extensive experience in scaling growth-stage companies enables Kurion to explore multiple paths to accelerate our market growth.”
According to Gallo, Kurion’s recent successes have drawn the interest of potential investors, and he said he sought a CFO with previous experience working with a publicly traded company. “Because of the growth and because of the additional awards, we have been approached by a number of investors and investment bankers with various proposals for the future of the company, and we thought it was appropriate to hire a CFO who had public company experience and who had a significant track record of dealing with investment bankers and investors. We wanted somebody who has gone through an IPO before to help me and the Board of Directors understand what all of our options are going forward with the business,” Gallo told RW Monitor this week. However, Gallo downplayed the potential of the company going public soon. “I wouldn’t say it’s an end goal at this point. What I would say is that we are trying to understand all of our options,” he said.
Recent Management Changes Reflect Quick Growth
Last month, Kurion implemented a number of other management changes, such as the company’s former Board chairman, Steve Piccolo, returning to the company to serve as Executive Vice President; and Phil Ohl, who served as Kurion’s Chief Operating Officer after the acquisition of Vista Engineering Services, being named Senior Vice President of European Operations. Explaining the changes, Gallo said this week, “These changes are all reflective of the fact that we are growing quickly and we are adding staff in a number of areas across the board.” He added, “We did the Vista acquisition earlier in the year and that brought a significant staff increases and management increases, but in addition to that, we have also hired nearly 50 employees separate from that this year. With that growth, we are also adding, management level staff and you’ve seen some of those changes recently.”
The management additions seemed to have a project management tilt, a fact that did not escape Gallo. “We are looking to strengthen our project management capabilities, but it’s for our global projects because we run all of our projects from Richland [Wash.],” Gallo said. “It’s not focused solely on DOE or on Hanford. We are running a global business here.”
