Leadership
Rick Larson
CEO
Prior to becoming CEO of VFD Technologies, Inc., Rick was President & CEO of Lehigh Valley Plastics, Inc., during which time LVP’s earnings performance grew more than 3 fold on their way to becoming one of the industries “best in class” suppliers for quality products, on-time-delivery and manufacturing efficiency. Rick also worked over 15 years with H.C.Starck GmbH, then a subsidiary of Bayer AG headquartered in Germany, with corporate responsibilities in Sales & Marketing, Production, Applications R&D, and International Operations. As Executive VP & Director of Bayer’s worldwide $100 million Fabrications Business, his P&L responsibilities included several global operations where products were manufactured from some of today’s most advanced materials, using highly innovative process technology. Earlier in his career, Rick held several core engineering positions and was instrumental in the IPO of Ceramic Process Systems, Inc. in 1987.
Rick received his BS in Engineering from Alfred University, an MBA from Northeastern University and a Bayer sponsored executive business management degree from Notre Dame University.
Elizabeth Rothwell
CCO
As Chief Commercial Officer, Beth is responsible for managing and developing customer relationships within the VfD operating companies. Her in-depth operational knowledge and expertise over a broad range of market applications has proven invaluable to the entirety of VfD’s customers.
Previously Beth was Vice President of Monterey Advisors, a Medical Device consulting firm. From 2002 to 2008, she held several executive leadership positions with Kyphon, Inc., including Vice President of Operations, Quality, R&D, Program Management and Regulatory Affairs. Kyphon, one of the fastest growing medical device companies in history, was acquired by Medtronic, Inc. in 2008 and following the merger of the companies, Beth worked as a Vice President responsible for leading cross-functional projects across the combined Medtronic Spine organization. From 1995 to 2002, Beth served on the Board of Directors and as a Vice President for Intercon, Inc., a privately-held contract manufacturing company specializing in fiber optic and electrical assemblies for a variety of markets.
Ms. Rothwell holds a M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and a B.S. in Ceramic Engineering from Alfred University. She is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Women in Leadership Program.
Patrick Thornton
CFO
Patrick is CFO of VFD Technologies, Inc. He has been instrumental in providing access to capital and establishing the disciplined financial management necessary for long-term sustainable growth. Patrick leads the financial strategy and drives its integration with the sales and operations functions, enabling the business to execute with data driven decisions and results based performance management. He has substantial experience in building the finance function for growing organizations, and his responsibility includes the areas M&A strategy, capital structure, leveraged finance, financial planning and analysis, financial reporting, tax, insurance and banking.
For more than 15 years Patrick has held senior management positions in growth oriented companies. Prior to joining VFD, he was VP of Finance at GreenShift Corporation, a publicly traded clean technology investment fund; Manager of International Finance at Anvil Knitwear, Inc., a private equity backed apparel manufacturer with $250 million in revenue and operations in 5 countries; and he held positions of increasing responsibility at Shamrock Partners/TSG, a New York based private equity investment group. He started his career in the financial services practice at KPMG, LLP.
Patrick is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University where he received a B.S. degree in Accounting, during which time he held a finance position at IBM, and is a certified public accountant.