Thomas Equipment Appoints New COO, Opens Parts Facility in Minnesota
May 17, 2006 — Milwaukee-based Thomas Equipment recently announced the appointment of James E. Patty (JP) as its chief operating officer. With 25 years of proven leadership in managing international operations, Patty will be responsible for overseeing global day-to-day operations. Appointed to the Board of Director's of Thomas Equipment in November 2004, Patty intends to relinquish his seat as he assumes this new position.
According to the company, Patty has a history of building efficient production operations, strategically expanding production capacity and creating shareholder value. His expertise includes re-engineering large organizations, supply chain management, creating markets, developing distribution channels, and accelerating profitable sales growth. He has also spearheaded numerous financings and merger and acquisition activities. Patty joins Thomas directly from a successful tenure at Computime Limited International China where he was executive vice president of business development. At Computime, Patty was responsible for design, development, and implementation of the company's global operating and management systems, integrating 10,000 people while achieving a revenue goal of $300 million and maximizing profits. In 2002, Patty founded Global Business Solutions, Inc., an international investment, management and outsourcing firm where he provided management consulting and interim management at the senior executive level and served as a board member for several growing companies. Before Global Business Solutions, Patty served as president and CEO of VPNet Technologies, a virtual private networking technology company, which he successfully turned around and increased the company's value tenfold in less than 18 months. He also managed VPNet's sale to Avaya Communications in 2001 for $180 million. Patty has held a number of international executive level management and engineering positions with companies including Lockheed's subsidiary CalComp, Motorola, GET Manufacturing (China, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States), AlphaSource Manufacturing (Thailand), Allied Telesis (Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan), MAXTOR (Singapore), and Four Phase Systems (U.S.). In addition to Patty's work experience, he also served in the U.S. Armed forces as a communication and electronic specialist in Special Forces Green Beret A-Team.
"We are very fortunate to have someone with JP's vast experience in growing organizations profitably join our executive management team," said David Marks, chairman of Thomas Equipment. "JP has provided sound guidance to Thomas since joining its board of directors, and now, with direct authority and responsibility, JP will be extremely valuable to the future growth of Thomas Equipment as we expand our global market presence."
In other news, Thomas Equipment revealed it will establish a parts distribution centre in
"Thomas is committed to providing our dealers with superior customer service,” said Clifford Rhee, Thomas' CEO. “Based on North American dealer feedback, we learned that our dealers sometimes experienced long wait times for parts given distance and customs delays, which impacted their ability to sell and service Thomas' products. After a careful study of the issues and options, we concluded that the establishment of a parts depot in the
Thomas' planned opening of a parts depot is its latest achievement under its Thomas(2) Initiative unveiled in January 2005, which is a strategic initiative to drive organic revenue growth to the natural power of Thomas' businesses and to expand worldwide brand recognition.
"The North American market represents a great opportunity for growth for Thomas,” said David Marks, chairman of Thomas Equipment. “This move will help enable the company to increase its market share in
