ALPHARETTA, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Spectrum Plastics Group–a leading medical components and contract manufacturer– today announced that Neil Shillingford, the company’s President & Chief Executive Officer, has decided to retire and Thomas J. Sullivan is being appointed President & Chief Executive Officer effective December 15, 2020. Mr. Shillingford will continue to contribute to Spectrum’s success as a Director on the Board.
Mr. Sullivan brings 25 years of medical device experience to SPG beginning with his twenty-year career at Johnson & Johnson, where he held numerous executive and operational leadership roles from 1990 until 2011. From 2002 to 2005 he served as President of Johnson & Johnson Medical Products Canada, where he had accountability for all of Johnson & Johnson’s medical device franchises across a broad array of clinical fields of application. He also served as the President of DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. and subsequently as the President of the Supply Chain & Business Process Division of Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc.
From 2011 until 2015, Mr. Sullivan was President and CEO of Symmetry Medical, a New York Stock Exchange listed company, which at the time was the industry leader in orthopaedic contract manufacturing. Mr. Sullivan sold Symmetry Medical to a private equity firm in 2015. After the sale of Symmetry Medical, Mr. Sullivan led Symmetry Surgical, Inc., a global medical device company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Symmetry Surgical was acquired by a private equity firm in July 2016. Mr. Sullivan’s most recent role was as President and CEO at A&E Medical Corporation, which was recently acquired by Zimmer Biomet.
In 1991, Mr. Sullivan graduated as a Palmer Scholar from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned an MBA. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh.
“On behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire team at Spectrum, I would like thank Neil for his leadership and dedication to Spectrum and its predecessor companies over the past thirty-four years, the last fourteen as CEO. He has helped drive the transformation of Spectrum into a leader in the medical device contract manufacturing and packaging films industries. His success in leading the company has been exemplified in guiding Spectrum successfully through the pandemic while working with the Board to find his successor. We are excited to have Neil remain as a Director on the Board and continue as an investor in the Company,” said Rahul Goyal, Chairman of Spectrum Plastics Group and a Partner with AEA. “We look forward to welcoming Tom to the company and working with him as he leverages his experience and expertise to drive the continued growth and evolution of Spectrum.”
Mr. Shillingford stated “It has been an honour and a privilege to lead Spectrum over the past fourteen years and while I will miss working with my colleagues and friends at SPG on a day to day basis, I look forward to continuing my involvement at the Board level. We are looking forward to Tom bringing his background in medical devices, knowledge of the global acute care marketplace and OEM customers, and experience with M&A execution to Spectrum.”
Mr. Sullivan added, “I am excited to build upon the strong foundation of quality and service that our 1,900 teammates around the world have created at Spectrum. We have a unique opportunity to advance medical device innovation for our customers with Spectrum’s expertise, ingenuity, and capabilities, which we will continue to expand with internal development and strategic acquisitions.”
About Spectrum Plastics Group
Based in Alpharetta, Georgia with multiple plants across the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Ireland and Malaysia, Spectrum Plastics Group is a North American leader in the design and fabrication of custom and specialty plastics products focusing on niche, high value-added end markets, including medical, food and defense applications. Spectrum Plastics offers a full range of custom design, engineering and fabrication services, as well as meet the requirements of ISO 9001, ISO 13485, and operates multiple Class 7 and Class 8 clean rooms. For more information, visit www.spectrumplastics.com or call 404-445-1172.
About AEA
AEA Investors LP was founded in 1968 by the Rockefeller, Mellon and Harriman family interests and S.G. Warburg & Co. as a private investment vehicle for a select group of industrial family offices with substantial assets. AEA has an extraordinary global network built over many years which includes leading industrial families, business executives and leaders; many of whom invest with AEA as active individual investors (“Participants”) and/or join its portfolio company boards or act in other advisory roles. Today, AEA’s approximately 90 investment professionals operate globally with offices in New York, Connecticut, London, Munich and Shanghai. The firm manages funds that have approximately $15 billion of invested and committed capital including the leveraged buyouts of middle market companies and small business companies and mezzanine and senior debt investments. AEA Private Equity invests across three sectors: value added industrials, consumer and services.
