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Walter (Bud) Aspatore – Board Member
Bud Aspatore is the Chairman and Co-Founder of Amherst Partners, a firm specializing in investment banking and financial advisory services, including corporate and debt restructurings, for small to mid-sized companies. Bud currently services clients not only in the US, but also in Asia, Canada and Europe.
Prior to the formation of Amherst Partners, Bud served as President of Cross and Trecker Corporation, an $800 million publicly traded worldwide factory automation equipment supplier. Bud has also served in numerous other operating capacities, namely as President and CEO of the Warner & Swasey Company and Vice President and Group Executive of the Bendix Corporation Industrial Tools Group.
Bud has also served as CFO of the Industrial Group of the Bendix Corporation and Vice President – Finance of the Industrial Energy Sector of the TRW Corporation. Bud has also served as Vice Chairman and President of Onset BIDCO, a venture capital and subordinated debt fund.
Bud serves on the Board of Directors of Laser Measurement International, Cogsdill Tool Company, and the US Board of Ricardo, plc (London: RCDO): In addition, Bud is a member of the Board of Directors of Methode Electronics (MEI) and M-Bank (MFNC). Bud is a member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG). Mr. Aspatore is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, Wisconsin.
Thomas M. Hunton - Board Member
Thomas Hunton With over 25 years senior management experience in the energy industry, Tom joined Simon Holdings to serve as a Board Member helping to shape the strategic direction for the organization. Tom began his career in the energy industry in 1978 when he joined American Petrofina, Inc and utilized his Chemical Engineering degree as a Group Leader Process Engineer. From there Tom progressed with Fina and coordinated all of their US and European refineries, ran Fina's branded marketing program (approximately 2.5 billion gallons) and developed a jobber loan program to build market share in priority markets.
Tom then joined Phibro Energy USA in July of 1992 as its Senior Vice President - Products where he had primary responsibility for all commercial activities for PEUSA including wholesale rack marketing, gasoline and distillate distribution and trading, petrochemical and solvent business, LPG's, intermediates and natural gas supply. Tom served as the Senior vice President - Strategic Planning and Business Development from January 1996 until April of 1998.
From Phibro, Tom joined Sprague Energy Corporation, the largest independent supplier/marketer on the East coast, and served as its Senior Vice President of Energy. At Sprague, Tom was responsible for the energy supply, trading, marketing and risk management departments. During his tenure revenues doubled though strategic acquisitions and organic growth. Under Tom's direction natural gas and electricity marketing and trading businesses were successfully created and helped contribute to the tremendous growth of the organization.