Elatec RFID - Joseph Grillo appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors

LONDON & MUNICH--()--Summit Partners, DPE Deutsche Private Equity (“DPE”) and their co-investors have closed the previously announced majority recapitalization of Elatec, a leading global provider of multi-standard RFID readers. As part of this transaction, DPE and its co-investors will remain minority shareholders in the company.

n conjunction with the closing of the investment, Joseph Grillo has been appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Elatec. Joseph is a 30-year veteran of the electronic security and identification industries with a track record of successfully growing, acquiring and restructuring businesses. In 2012, Joseph founded ACRE, LLC as a platform to consolidate acquisitions in the electronic security industry. Over the past 6 years, ACRE has expanded its portfolio significantly and recently sold its Mercury Security business to HID Global.

Joseph is known for his long-term association with HID where he participated in the management buyout of HID from Hughes Aircraft/General Motors in 1995. During his 12 years with HID, Joseph served in various leadership roles ranging from VP of Sales and Marketing to Chief Operating Officer to Chief Executive Officer and President. Under Joseph’s leadership, HID grew from a $15M card and reader company in 1995 to a dominant $100M+ industry leader in radio-frequency technology for security applications by 2000. Joe also led the successful sale of HID to Assa Abloy in 2001 and, until his retirement in 2007, continued to run Assa Abloy’s $750M Global Technology Division.

“We are very pleased to have Joe join our board,” said Dr. Matthias Allgaier, a Managing Director at Summit Partners, who has also joined the Elatec Board. “Joe’s track record in the secure electronic identification industry is unrivalled and we look forward to collaborating with him and the Elatec team to help accelerate the company’s growth into new geographies and industry verticals.”

About Elatec
Elatec, based in Puchheim near Munich, is specialized in the development and global sales of contactless (RFID, NFC, Bluetooth) and contact (SmartCard) readers/writers.

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