HEPACO Names Ken Smith as Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Smith has more than 34 years of management, operations, sales, engineering, and construction experience across industrial and environmental verticals. Prior to joining HEPACO, Mr. Smith served in various leadership positions over a 20 year tenure at Fluor Corporation. He was most recently a Senior Vice President, developing and expanding integrated service solutions across all Fluor business groups. Prior to his time at Fluor, Mr. Smith served in a senior leadership role at Jacobs Engineering Group. At Jacobs he used his general management, marketing, and innovation skills to improve business performance across a diverse range of offerings.

Philip V. Petrocelli, Operations Partner of the Business Services Group at Gryphon and Chairman of the Board of HEPACO, said, “We are pleased to welcome Ken to HEPACO and believe his leadership skills will be instrumental in continuing to build this company. We are equally grateful to Mike Szomjassy for acting as Interim CEO while the company transitioned to a permanent chief executive. We expect to take full advantage of his continued active
engagement on the Board.”

Mr. Smith added, “I am excited to be working alongside Gryphon and the HEPACO team to continue to execute on the company’s strategic growth initiatives. HEPACO is a best-in-class environmental services provider with strong momentum. I look forward to working with our team to expand our geographic footprint and service capabilities for the benefit of our customers.”

Mr. Szomjassy commented, “It’s been an honor to have worked with the Gryphon team on the leadership transition of HEPACO. I know the company will continue to expand its market leadership. I look forward to contributing to their story in my role as a strategic advisor.”

About HEPACO
HEPACO (www.hepaco.com) is a leading provider of emergency response, environmental remediation, maritime services, wastewater treatment, and other industrial services across a diversified group of end markets including rail, oil & gas, transportation, power & utility, and manufacturing. The company has a broad geographic footprint across 30 offices in the MidAtlantic and Southeast United States and offers a three-hour or less response time within its footprint. The Company provides services on both an emergency response and planned basis and has completed more than 45,000 projects since inception.

About Gryphon Investors
Based in San Francisco, Gryphon Investors (www.gryphoninvestors.com) is a leading private equity firm focused on profitably growing and competitively enhancing middle-market companies in partnership with experienced management. For 20 consecutive quarters, Gryphon has been ranked in Preqin’s prestigious quarterly PE report as one of North America’s top-decile buyout firms based on consistency of strong investment returns. Managing over $2.6 billion of equity investments and capital since 1997, the firm has an extensive track record of leading equity investments of $50 million to $200 million per portfolio company with sales ranging from approximately $100 million to $500 million. Gryphon prioritizes investment opportunities where it can form proactive partnerships with owners and executives to build leading companies, utilizing Gryphon’s capital, specialized professional resources, and operational expertise.

Gryphon closed its fourth private equity buyout fund, Gryphon IV, in November 2016 at $1.1 billion, and raised a $100 million captive mezzanine fund, Gryphon Mezzanine Partners, L.P., in August 2017.