|
Mr. Neece has extensive experience in the planning and development of telecommunications and other high-tech ventures, and in providing sophisticated strategic and financial advisory services to a wide range of technology, government contracting, manufacturing, retailing, and energy businesses.
Mr. Neece is also internationally recognized as a leader in applications of ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans) to the privatization of Federal, state and local governmental functions. ESOP Advisors, an affiliate of which he is President (www.esopadvisors.com ), has conducted over 40 feasibility studies and evaluations of ESOP privatization and a dozen implementations - in which governmental units have been spun out to become either employee-owned stand-alone companies or units of nonprofit entities or large corporations.
Among the more notable such spin-outs was one of the first - the Office of Federal Investigations in the Office of Personnel Management, determined to be feasible and spun-out in 1996-97 as the largely employee-owned U.S. Investigative Services. The new company significantly expanded its customer base, adding both government and private clients, and through growth and efficiency reduced the price per investigation charged to the government. In early 2003, two private equity firms acquired USIS for over $700 million.
Recognizing the ground-breaking work that he has performed in ESOP privatization, The Maxwell School for Public Management, part of Syracuse University, has named Mr. Neece a Fellow. Mr. Neece formerly served on the board of directors of the Employee Stock Ownership Association, and is a nationally known speaker on ESOPs.
Mr. Neece also has experience with the petroleum industry and in developing public policy for the oil and gas industry. Mr. Neece served on the Governors Energy Advisory council of the State of Texas from 1972-1973. He served as an economist for the General Land Office (GLO) of the State of Texas. The GLO is responsible for management of all state owned land in Texas, including the oil and gas fields which form the endowment of the State University System. Mr. Neece served as Senior Economist on DOE projects to analyze the development potential of oil shale in the Western States and also performed economic analysis for the Synthetic Fuels Corporation.
Mr. Neece was educated as an economist and as a mechanical engineer, both at the University of Texas.
In 1984, Mr. Neece joined Calvert Securities, Ltd. to direct the development and implementation of a corporate finance unit. Subsequent to the purchase of Calvert by the Acacia Mutual Life Insurance Company, Mr. Neece moved this corporate finance unit to the parent company under the direct supervision of the Chief Financial Officer. From 1985 through 1987, Mr. Neece directed the Acacia ESOP Services Group.
Earlier, he was a Vice President of Consumers United Group (CUG), an insurance, financial services and computer services conglomerate, then 50% owned by its employees. Mr. Neece was a member of CUG's investment committee, and developed an investment program in employee-owned businesses. He also was a member of a team that structured and arranged financing for CUG to become a 100% employee-owned enterprise.
|
