Management Bios

 L. Michael Hone

Recognizing opportunities, developing effective strategies, acting decisively. For 25 years that has been the management formula L. Michael Hone has followed while retrieving a number of companies from the depths of corporate disaster and leading others to record growth.

 As a chief executive and turnaround specialist he has introduced innovative products and opened new markets; negotiated favorable acquisitions and alliances; and restored the confidence of investors and customers following scandal and bankruptcy.  

Most recently he was chief operating officer of Conseco Insurance Group., a public company based in Carmel, IN. There his strategic planning and oversight helped lead the comeback of this financial services giant from its highly-publicized $52 billion bankruptcy filing, the third largest bankruptcy in U.S. corporate history.  

He directed the assimilation of 38 insurance companies with disparate computer networks that comprised the Conseco Insurance Group, into a streamlined organization. By designing a fully-integrated product development process he led Conseco’s introduction of new offerings in workplace life insurance, Medicare supplemental insurance, cancer coverage and annuity contracts. He reorganized Conseco’s sales force and directed operations that managed 2,500 employees and more than $2 billion in revenues.

 Prior to Conseco he served as president, CEO and director of Bizfon Inc., a private company located in Salem, NH, a manufacturer of low-cost telecom systems for small businesses. There he introduced new products, reorganized sales and operations and led the firm out of Chapter 11 proceedings, eventually negotiating its sale on favorable terms to Telantis Group of Akron, Ohio.

Concurrently, he briefly served as chief operating officer and a director for Lucid, Inc., a private company headquartered in Rochester, NY, and a maker of cellular imaging technology for the medical industry.

 In the late 1990s Mr. Hone led a remarkable recovery at Centennial Technologies, Inc., a publicly-held maker of PC memory cards, located in Wilmington, MA. After being recruited to become CEO and president of Centennial, he resolved more than 40 shareholder lawsuits, maintained the firm’s customer base, refocused the sales force and improved revenue growth from a run rate of approximately $20 million to more than $100 million as Centennial was named one of the Boston Globe’s Top 100 Companies. He ultimately negotiated the sale of Centennial to Solectron Corporation for $108 million. 

His senior-executive career began in 1981 at PSC Inc., a Rochester, N.Y.-based, publicly-held maker of laser-based bar code scanners. As president and CEO and chairman he oversaw the conversion of PSC from an unprofitable slow-growth company, to one that offered the broadest line of handheld and fixed position laser bar code scanners in the world. Under his direction gross revenues grew from roughly $3 million to more than $210 million by the mid-1990s and PSC was named one of the Best Small Companies in America by Forbes magazine and BusinessWeek.

 He attended Ohio State University and Wright State University, is a former chairman of AIM USA and AIM International and a named inventor on six U.S. patents. He is a director on the boards of EveryNetwork, a Boston-based manager of outsourced communications and IT systems; Lucid, Inc. and Bizfon Inc. Mr. Hone has served on numerous other private, public and non-profit boards.

William J. Shea

William J. Shea is an active manager, turnaround specialist and investor in small to medium-sized companies.  His business expertise and financial resources have been instrumental in bringing several high technology and software companies from start-up or turnaround positions to financial viability.  Shea served as vice chairman and chief financial officer of BankBoston Corporation for six years, joining the company in 1992 when it was known as Bank of Boston and was the 15th largest bank holding company in the United States. The bank’s stock price increased from $18 to $118 per share (pre-split) on his watch.  Prior to that, Shea was vice chairman at Coopers & Lybrand and a member of the firm’s governing body, overseeing client services to the firm’s largest 200 customers. In his 19 years there, Mr. Shea specialized in taking private companies public and consulting to financial services and high-technology companies.  Shea serves on the board of trustees and the executive committee of Children’s Hospital in Boston, Northeastern University, and the board and executive committee of the Boston Stock Exchange.

Richard Stathes

Richard Stathes, as executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for Centennial Technologies, led the company’s sales and marketing force during its successful turnaround. Starting as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing in 1997, Stathes was a member of the team responsible for shifting Centennial from an unprofitable $22 million to a profitable $85 million company before its 2001 purchase by Solectron Corporation.  Earlier, Mr. Stathes was vice president for North American sales at scanner manufacturer PSC, Inc., where he also directed sales strategy and product direction.  PSC enjoyed revenue growth from $12 million to over $200 million during his tenure there. A former director of sales for Computer Products, Inc., Stathes started his career at Hewlett-Packard and was recognized for top performance by inclusion in the HP President’s Club.  Stathes received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Air Force and holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Syracuse University.

Jacques Assour

Jacques Assour was last the senior vice president of operations for Centennial Technologies, the PC card manufacturer purchased in April 2001 by Solectron Corporation. A member of the executive team that produced 12 consecutive quarters ofprofitability and an increase in revenue growth of 290 percent in three years, Assour reorganized and directed manufacturing and other operations to improve cost-effectiveness and rapid customer response. Prior to running a consulting business, Assour worked between 1990 and 1995 as senior vice president of operations for PSC, Inc., responsible for all hardware and software developments, and design and rollout of several new products for worldwide distribution.  He began his career at RCA Corporation, including a stint in the RCA Laboratories.  He holds five patents, and earned degrees in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in electro physics from Polytechnic Institute, New York.

Richard Pulsifer

Richard Pulsifer served as chief financial officer at Centennial Technologies from 1999 to 2001.  The company had a troubled financial history and had been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange; Mr. Pulsifer was selected to oversee financial aspects of a successful company turnaround and supervised the resulting acquisition by Solectron Corporation.  Prior to Centennial, Mr. Pulsifer was the Chief Financial Officer at Praxis International, where he raised venture capital, managed the company’s sale, and completed a tax-free spin-off of the company.  Earlier in his career, he was corporate controller at four other technology companies, where his responsibilities included execution of initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions and downsizing.  Mr. Pulsifer started his career as an auditor and worked for Coopers & Lybrand.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Suffolk University.  He is a member of the Financial Executives and National Investor Relations Institutes.

Mary Gallahan

Mary Gallahan was the vice president of administration and human resources for Centennial Technologies. She was recruited to the company by its executive team to comprehensively revise and strengthen human resources plans and policies. Prior to Centennial, she was corporate officer and vice president of human resources for Schuff Steel, and had also worked at PSC Inc., Eastman Kodak, and Colt Industries. Throughout her 25-year career, Gallahan has specialized in serving high-tech, high-volume and fast-paced companies. She has been an industry consultant and has worked on executive teams during start-up, expansion and retention phases, as well as on acquisitions, mergers and downsizing.  She is an active member of the Society for Human Resources Management, the American Management Association, Associated Industries of Massachusetts, and the Association of Quality Professionals.

John Nugent

As vice president of international operations for Centennial Technologies, John Nugent established the company’s European headquarters in the UK in 1998. Nugent put into place the necessary platform to bring Centennial’s export market to profitability and increased the company’s international sales revenue in fiscal 2001, prior to the Solectron acquisition, by almost 300 percent. Prior to joining Centennial, he was vice president of international operations at scanner-manufacturer, PSC, with responsibility for sales operations throughout Europe, Asia Pacific and South America. Nugent established new sales and marketing facilities in Japan, Australia and Brazil and successfully  established direct sales and channel sales throughout Europe. Prior to PSC, Nugent founded the European sales and marketing operation for Welch Allyn, a data collection company.  He is a previous chairman of AIM Europe and holds a degree in business studies from the University nof Liverpool.