Dr. Michael (Mike) Holland has over 35 years of experience as an executive with middle market companies. His last position was as a Division President and General Manager of Sparta Composites, now Cobham Composites, located in San Diego, CA. Sparta Inc. (which was acquired by Cobham Plc, a UK $2 billion aerospace, defense and manufacturing company) was a $300 million employee owned spinoff of SAIC. Cobham Composites is a $40 million high technology composites components development and production company.

 

Extensive experience in marketing, business development and manufacturing as an executive and stock holder in an employee owned company gave Mike a special appreciation for the challenges and rewards of middle market business founders, owners and stock holders. He enjoys working with them to assist in increasing the value of their businesses and, when they are ready, to assist in a transaction, which could be a sale, an acquisition or a recapitalization.

 

He has also held executive positions at Maxwell Laboratories, a leader in supplying super-capacitors to the electronics and electric vehicle industries and General Atomics, a leader in the development and deployment of UAV systems for the Army, Air Force and Department of Homeland Defense.

 

Mike has a long history of leading the development of advanced technology systems for many US Government agencies, including the DOE, Army, Air Force, DARPA, the former Defense Nuclear Agency (now the Defense Threat Reduction Agency), the UK Ministry of Defence, the German Federal Ministry of Defence and many US aerospace and defense primes, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Pratt and Whitney and Raytheon. He has experience in analytics, design, product development, quality assurance, lean manufacturing and high rate production.

 

Significant experience with international business, including Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the UAE and the UK, has provided Mike with insight into foreign companies that might be interested in making acquisitions in the US. In Norway, he was involved in the formation and operations of a Joint Venture Company that provided Statoil with an off-shore platform, state-of-the-art marine environmental monitoring system that continues to operate today.

 

In 2003, as Division President, and with Sparta Corporate Board of Directors approval, Mike led an effort to divest the Composites Products Division from the parent company. In 2007, he became a full time M&A professional. Mike earned a B.S. degree with highest honors in Physics from Clemson University, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from the University of Virginia and was a member of the Columbia University physics department staff prior to accepting a position at General Atomics.

 

He holds FINRA Series 62, 63 and 79 licenses. He has four married daughters and nine grandchildren that keep him and his wife occupied when he is not involved in M&A transactions.