Symmetric has established a Strategic Advisory Board of CEOs and other industry leaders who have historical working relationships with Symmetric's partners. These accomplished entrepreneurs and executives bring complementary backgrounds and networks covering a range of industries and geographies targeted by Symmetric.
Joel Alvord. Mr. Alvord is the President of Shawmut Capital Partners, the private equity firm he co-founded with Dan Doyle in 1997. Previously, Mr. Alvord led a distinguished career of over thirty-four years in financial services, beginning at Hartford National Bank, where he rose to President, and then at Shawmut National Bank, where he became Chief Executive Officer following its merger with Hartford National. He subsequently became Chairman of Fleet Financial after its merger with Shawmut National. Mr. Alvord is active in a number of professional organizations and has served on the boards of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Swiss Reinsurance Company of North America, FleetBoston Financial, Cuno, and HSB Group. He holds a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth.
Thomas Fay. Mr. Fay is a consultant and director to private equity firms and their portfolio companies, with a particular focus on direct-mail marketers. From 2001 to 2004, he was the CEO and a Director of EMED Co., a direct marketer of safety signs and equipment, which was majority-owned by Summit Partners. (Rob Walsh co-led Summit's 1999 investment in EMED and recruited Mr. Fay as the company's CEO.) After several years of industry-leading performance, EMED was acquired by its public competitor, Brady Corp., in 2004. Mr. Fay was previously Executive Vice President and a Director of WearGuard, a direct marketer of specialty clothing, where revenues grew nearly three-fold, and earnings increased ten-fold, during his tenure. He is a graduate of Boston College and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Mark Scudiery. Through 2004, Mr. Scudiery was the CEO of Hemophilia Resources of America ("HRA"), an innovative disease management and specialty pharmaceuticals distribution company which he founded in 1993. (While at Summit, Rob Walsh led a majority recapitalization of HRA in 1999.) Having become the largest private competitor in its field, HRA was purchased by a public competitor, Accredo Health Group, in 2004. Mr. Scudiery's career in healthcare services spans more than thirty years, including sales and management roles at Ross Laboratories, American McGaw Laboratories, and Caremark, prior to the founding of HRA. He earned a B.A. from Rutgers University and served in the U.S. Navy.