Michael Ruggieri

Michael C. Ruggieri is a collaborative, empathetic, and charismatic leader with an analytical mindset and entrepreneurial spirit. He possesses deep executive operating, private equity (PE), and family business experience, including expertise in transitioning from a family to a PE-backed business. As an influential growth strategist, he drives growth, performance improvement, and sustainable change while balancing stakeholder interests and focusing on strategic planning, commercial operations, and corporate governance.

Passionate about winning, creating wealth, and developing people, Michael showcases his ability to develop ROI-focused operating models, lead multimillion-dollar M&A transactions, and create value for shareholders and stakeholders.

With the majority of his experience centered around PE firms, Michael is well-versed in making strategic investment decisions. As a fiscal steward, he has owned multimillion-dollar P&Ls and overseen balance sheets in high-growth situations and crises. He is adept at transitioning large family businesses to PE-backed entities as well as leading the successful sale of portfolio companies. Comar, LLC is regulated by the FDA, and as such, Michael understands the requirements of ISO 9001 and 13485, as well as cGMP expectations. He is experienced in primary pharmaceutical packaging, class I and class II medical devices, and food and functional food packaging.

Currently, Michael serves as the Chair of the Board at Comar, LLC. In this role, Michael’s board expertise spans leading nominating committees through multiple C-Suite appointments, building executive compensation and management incentive plans, and mentoring and advising C-Suite leaders and teams. Michael hired his successor CEO and led his transition ensuring deep understanding of company goals, strategy, and culture. He maintains a deep understanding of board governance, succession planning, and finance. In the PE space, Michael has been an owner and an operator and holds a significant part of his net worth in PE and private businesses, diversified across approximately 40 different funds/businesses.

Michael has achieved success in driving double-digit percentage revenue and EBITDA gains by driving organic and inorganic strategies grounded in real-world analytics. Previously, at Comar, Michael served as the CEO for 8+ years. In this role, he scaled the organization to new heights by transitioning from a family-owned business to a PE-backed organization. Michael completed 10 multimillion-dollar acquisitions while leading investment thesis development, sourcing, and diligence efforts. Earlier, as the President of Comar, LLC, Michael turned around an organization on the verge of bankruptcy. He devised a 5-year turnaround strategy and provided executive leadership and strategic direction to reverse poor financial performance, solve a cash flow crisis, and elevate the market position.

Prior to assuming leadership of the company, Michael served in a variety of functional leadership positions. As Director of Finance, Michael drove sweeping improvements of the standard cost and pricing practices delivering significant margin improvement. As Manufacturing Manager, Michael led the turn around of Comar’s Glass Business leading to the successful sale of the division. At the start of Michael’s career, he held two successful manufacturing engineering positions at both Comar and Lockheed Martin
Michael has presented and participated as a panelist at several industry events and conferences during his board and executive leadership tenure.