MAY 9, 2022
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Patrick O’Connor to the Valence Surface Technologies (VST) Executive Leadership Team (ELT) in the role of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO).
This role is responsible for driving the VST overall strategy for sales and business growth across all North American locations and further emphasizes our commitment to customer value creation. As we look to build national accounts and drive sales beyond our traditional aerospace and defense core markets, it is critical that we invest in our customer-facing functions to drive expanded relationships.
Patrick will be based at our El Segundo Headquarters in Southern California and will be responsible for all commercial resources, including regional sales, business development, customer service, marketing communications, contracts, pricing, and the overall customer channel facing team.
Chris Celtruda; Valence Chief Executive officer shared, “A strong customer service culture is a critical part of our VST operating system. Patrick is passionate about customer relationship management and brings a legacy of building commercial teams that drive growth and customer engagement.”
Patrick has over 35 years of experience in the aerospace and defense market with a history of driving sales for businesses with a wide variety of products and processes. He also has a strong business development background with a passion for building teams that drive growth and partnering relationships with global customers.
Most recently, Patrick was the CEO of Atlas Specialty Products, a manufacturer of hydraulic fittings for aerospace and defense applications. Prior to Atlas, Patrick held executive, general management, and growth leadership positions at leading aerospace companies, including Wencor, Permaswage, Cobham and Honeywell/AlliedSignal.
Patrick commented, “I am excited to join the Valence leadership team and engage with our customer facing team. I look forward to building on our strong pipeline of new business opportunities and positioning the business for growth in our core aerospace market, while introducing our coating capabilities to the fast-growing space, medical and alternate energy markets.”
Patrick has a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the Thunderbird School of International Management and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arizona.
Valence Surface Technologies is the largest independent provider of metal finishing to the commercial aviation, defense, space, and medical market verticals, with OEM approved painting, plating and coating capabilities throughout the United States. Valence is headquartered in Los Angeles, CALIFORNIA and is sponsored by equity investors ATL Partners and BCI; the British Columbia Investment Management Company.