AEG Power Solutions - Management
Bruce Alton Brock, CEO
Bruce Brock is a proven executive with over 35 years of experience in creating shareholder value within various industrial and technology based businesses. Mr. Brock is known in the industry as a visionary leader with significant proven turnaround skills. His strengths are broad business knowledge, an eye for talent, and the ability to integrate a diverse set of skills and personalities into an extremely cohesive, productive and effective management team by personal communications and respect for the individual.
In January 2005, Mr. Brock assumed the position of President, CEO and Managing Director of AEG Power Solutions BV, an acquisition by Ripplewood Holdings and the Brock Group. Prior to the acquisition, it was the non-core, unprofitable Power Electronics Division of Alcatel, a global leader in the telecom equipment industry. Over the last 4 years, Mr. Brock has led his management team in turning around the business both operationally and financially. Today, the business is a recognized leader in the Power Electronics industry, has doubled its top line, and dramatically increased EBITDA from fundamentally zero to over 25%. It is positioned to become the next tier one power electronics company in the industry.
Prior to the AEG Power Solutions’ responsibility, Mr. Brock formed the Brock Group and partnered with Robert Huljak, a power electronics technology and strategic leader. Mr. Huljak was Mr. Brock’s CTO and chief strategist at Lucent Power Systems. The Brock Group has provided management services to several corporations and start up venture capital sponsored companies. In 2001, the Brock Group partnered with Ripplewood Holdings to perform operational and business due diligence to establish strategic forward-looking business plans for potential electronic acquisition projects. In 2005, the team acquired what is now called AEG Power Solutions.
In early 1997, Mr. Brock accepted the position of Chief Operating Officer of the Lucent Power Systems (LPS) business, again a non-core, unprofitable power electronics Division of a global telecom equipment manufacturer, Lucent Technologies. In this leadership capacity, the business tripled its top line, achieved over 15% EBITDA, and gained industry recognition as the largest and most influential power electronics company in the industry. He and his team achieved these record levels of growth and profitability through organic growth and exceptional overall business and operations management. Mr. Brock stressed the need for well-formulated market driven business strategies encompassing all facets of the enterprise. He emphasized striving for breakthrough performance through product innovation, Total Quality Management, manufacturing, continuous communications, and above all, organizational excellence. LPS was sold to Tyco International in late 2000 for an industry record amount.
After graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1967 with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, Mr. Brock joined Honeywell as a Production Engineer. He held a variety of operational, engineering, management, and executive management positions in the Residential, Industrial and Aerospace businesses until 1993 when he joined the Allied Signal Corporation as a senior member of the automotive business.
Mr. Brock graduated in 1983 from a Honeywell conducted Harvard MBA program, holds a patent in hydro-fluidics manufacturing, has served as Chairman of the International Consortium of Advanced Manufacturing, an Advisory Board Member for Intelligent Manufacturing for the United States Department of Commerce, Chairman of the Minnesota Council for Quality, a Board of Trustees member for the Dallas Science Place, and has made numerous industry presentations on leadership, management, total quality, and business turnaround methods.
Mr. Brock and his wife Jan, spend the majority of their time in Europe, close to the AEG company headquarters in Zwanenburg, Netherlands. Bruce is a native Minnesotan, has 6 children, and10 grand children, all living in Minnesota.
Robert J. Huljak, COO
Since January 2005, Robert J. Huljak has served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) for AEG Power
Solutions which began as the acquisition of a non-core unprofitable Power Electronics Division of
Alcatel, a global leader in the telecom industry. In this leadership role, Mr. Huljak has
been a key developer in creating business strategies that have successfully lead to establishing
AEG as a very lucrative Power Electronics global market leader. In four years, the Company
has doubled its revenue, and increased EBITDA from essentially zero to over 25% of sales. Under Mr.
Huljak’s direction, the business product lines have been refreshed, the manufacturing footprint
restructured, and the necessary IT tools invested in to provide a basis for consistency and
productivity gains across thirteen legal entities. Mr. Huljak has led the repositioning of
the business into specific industrial and infrastructure vertical markets that has been
instrumental in its financial turn-around. AEG is positioned to become a tier one power electronics
company in the next 3 years.
Prior to acquiring AEG Power Solutions, Mr. Huljak partnered with Bruce Brock to form the
Brock Group in providing management services to several corporations and start-ups. As the Brock
Group partnered with Ripplewood Holdings, Mr. Huljak performed operational due diligence and
established strategic business plans for potential electronic acquisition projects, and as an
industrial partner was instrumental in understanding the potential of the Alcatel power business
and establishing the strategies for what has become AEG Power Solutions.
Prior to his partnership with Bruce Brock and the Brock Group, Mr. Huljak served as
Vice President of Development and Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for Lucent Technologies' Power
Systems business. He joined the Power Systems’ organization in November of 1996 as Chief
Technical Officer (CTO), and was promoted to Vice President, Development in February 1998.
During his 4 year tenure at Lucent Power Systems (LPS), headquartered in Mesquite, Texas, the
business tripled its top line and achieved greater than 12% EBITDA. LPS reportedly became the
industry technology leader and largest manufacturer of power systems and supplies in the world
prior to it being sold to Tyco Electronics, in December 2000. Mr. Huljak led all development
efforts and provided technical leadership for Lucent's Bell Labs power research and development
including a network of global design centers. He was an active member of the Power Lead Team,
the group of key senior executives that provided leadership to the 5,600 employee Power Systems
business.
Prior to joining Lucent, Mr. Huljak was the Director of Development at MagneTek’s Lighting
Group. The Group was experiencing a trend of losing market share and Mr. Huljak was responsible for
reversing the trend. By reorganizing, re-staffing, and redirecting the entire Development
team, he helped re-establish MagneTek as the industry leader in electronic ballasts. With its
market position restored, this business eventually went private as Universal Lighting and
subsequently was acquired by Panasonic.
Mr. Huljak began his career with IBM in 1970 and held various technical and management
positions over a period of 23 years. The majority of his IBM assignments involved product
development focused in the fields of power electronics and analog circuits. He began as an
engineer designing IBM's first switch-mode regulators and concluded his IBM career in 1993 as the
Director of Development of the Company’s Power Supply Group which ultimately became Celestica as a
private equity acquisition from IBM.
Bob Huljak graduated from Syracuse University in 1973 with an MSEE degree after obtaining his
BSEE from the University of Wisconsin in 1969. He has been active within the Power Supply
Industry and served on the Board of Directors for PSMA. He has also served on the University
of Texas-Arlington Advisory Board for Engineering. Mr. Huljak holds two power circuit patents, has
made numerous industry presentations over the years and has partnered with leading research
centers: MIT, Virginia Tech, and Cal Tech.