PEOPLE NEWS
Microporous appoints new CEO as Jean-Luc Koch steps down Microporous announced John Reeves had been hired as CEO on December 8 in a sudden move in which Jean Luc Koch, who has headed up the firm since it became independent in 2013, resigned with immediate effect, reportedly for personal reasons. “The company said: “John brings years of experience to the company in a range of industries, including engineered materials, chemicals and construction products. “Additionally, John has more than a dozen years of executive leadership experience at private equityowned businesses, driving growth in revenue and enterprise value.” Reeves’s background is material science, with a bachelor’s degree in textile and industrial engineering. Much of his career has been with material science, working for Lincoln Industries in coated fabrics, and the German life science firm Hoechst Celanese on a variety of polyesters. Out of a joint venture with Hoechst and the BBA Group in 1997, Reeves grew AQF Technologies, a filtration media start-up, into a dominant gas-phase filtration technology industry. By 2000 the business was expanding at a 35% annual growth rate with Reeves at the helm as CEO and president. BBA retained Reeves in various VP posts to lead the strategy for the development of the firm as vice president of engineered materials. It was when he joined building materials firm IPS as president of Structural Adhesives in 2008 that he was first introduced to private equity. “This was in high-end adhesives and in 10 years the company grew by about 850%,” he told Batteries
John Reeves
International. “Some 60% was organic, 40% was acquisitions. So I’m a technology material science kind of guy that’s fortunately figured out how to do that well for private equity-sponsored businesses. “When this opportunity with Microporous came along — with a lot of the raw materials and processes similar to what I’m used to — it seemed a good fit.” Reeves admits that there’s a lot of learning to do with regard to the lead-acid battery business, but “the notion of developing innovative products and driving a business by pleasing customers and offering them materials that can help
Bryan Allen
Microporous has also appointed Bryan Allen as director of sales for North America, in early November. Allen previously worked as a senior director of sales for Leoch Battery. Before that he spent nine years with Exide Technologies, initially as a business development
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move their business forward is similar to what I’ve done in the past,” he says. “I’ve only been here a few weeks and it’s interesting how our customers are willing to work with us on different projects. It’s a very collaborative industry, which I’ve found delightful. There’s a determination in the industry to combat challenges and a desire to offer higher quality, longer life products.” As far as the future for Microporous goes, Reeves says it’s too early to say. “We have the ability to grow in lots of different ways,” he says. “Our sponsors have been very dedicated to Microporous and spent a tremendous amount of capital investing in the business.”
Claudia Lorenzini, vice president sales and marketing, thanked outgoing Jean Luc Koch and said he had built Microporous into what it is today. “Our company has thrived since its re-emergence as an independent company seven years ago and has been investing heavily in equipment, processes and people to assure that it is well positioned to continue to support our customers and our industry,” she said. “We are excited about the future and are extremely confident that John will have the same level of enthusiasm to help Microporous’ customers to achieve continued success and grow our business together.”
“Our company has ... been investing heavily in equipment, processes and people to assure it is well positioned to continue to support our customers and our industry” — Claudia Lorenzini manager and then as a manager for strategic/national accounts. His brief at Microporous is to contribute to the growth of the North American business and increase the company’s market share by opening up new accounts and promoting the sales of existing and new products. Allen says: “The introduction of different materials, for instance reducing the resistance and increase the charge acceptance opens up a world of opportunities for separators,” he said. “PSoC applications are driving a lot of the battery technology now — with
forklifts, for example, you want to be able to charge it up periodically throughout the day so it stays running and isn’t down sitting on a charger for four hours. “You can apply that mentality to the UPS market, where batteries are covering almost micro outages, little blips in electricity, so the battery has to be designed to take a small hit and then go back online and be charged periodically throughout the day. It’s the same with the renewable energy market. Allen will report to Claudia Lorenzini, vice president of sales and marketing.
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