Team

SSA Capital’s team of experienced professionals have both strategic and executional expertise, developed from experience with leading strategic consulting and financial firms, as well as previous roles in operational management with global corporations. This powerful combination means that SSA Capital team members have the ability to ask the right questions or gather relevant information to gain strategic insights quickly. Most importantly, we understand the challenges and realities of transforming recommendations into solid results within a corporate environment.

SSA Capital professionals bring an energy, enthusiasm, and sense of urgency to everything we do. Our team members apply a “can do” intensity that means we are not afraid to roll up our sleeves and do what it takes to generate value for our clients and our investments.

SSA Capital team members have a wide breadth of experience, having had positions in strategic sourcing, procurement, operations, finance, sales, sales training, sales management and marketing in various industries. Below are the bios of some key SSA Capital team members:

Rick Berry, President & CEO  

Mr. Rick Berry is the President and CEO of SSA Capital. Mr. Berry has extensive experience in both strategic cost reduction and sales effectiveness efforts. He has helped many organizations achieve significant cost savings and process improvements through the application of sourcing, supply chain management and eProcurement strategies. Additionally, Mr. Berry has helped numerous organizations improve profitability through increased sales results. Prior to his work in consulting, he held several sales and sales management positions including a top Sales Representative and Sales Trainer at Procter and Gamble, National Sales Trainer at C.R. Bard, Sales Manager at Boston Scientific, Inc., VP of Operations at Avnet Electronics, and Regional General Manager of Otis Elevator Company.

In 1991, Mr. Berry formed PGI, a global strategic sourcing company. Ultimately, Mr. Berry built PGI into a global operation with clients in Europe, North America and South America. In 1999, Mr. Berry expanded the breadth of PGI's cost reduction services by developing an innovative concept that combined technology with strategic sourcing concepts. Ultimately, this solution embodied a wide realm of eProcurement tools including reverse auctions, product exchanges and procurement outsourcing. To help organizations significantly improve business results and growth in the most effective way possible, Mr. Berry re-focused on providing consulting services to the marketplace in 2001. Under a new name, SSA Capital offers Strategic Sourcing, Consulting, and Data Services.

Mr. Berry has successfully sold and led cost reduction and sales efforts to the Global 2000 across numerous industries to customers including TRW, IBM, Schering-Plough, Merck, Kellogg's, Eli Lilly, Asarco, Jacobsen Textron, Navistar, Warner Lambert, Advanta, Sunoco, Laidlaw and many others.

Mr. Berry received a BS from Pennsylvania State University and Master in Business Administration with distinction from Harvard University.

Gene Desimone, Chief Operating Officer 

Prior to joining SSA Capital, Mr. Gene Desimone was a founding partner of Novel Business Solutions, LLC., a consulting firm specializing in strategic business planning and cost base optimization.

For 28 years, Mr. Desimone served as a senior pharmaceutical executive with wide ranging responsibilities within the global pharmaceutical operations of Schering-Plough Corporation. His responsibilities included leadership of the Finance, Information Systems, Contract and Pricing, Product Sourcing, as well as sales and marketing support functions. Additionally, he directed some of the companies most significant merger and acquisition activities.

Mr. Desimone holds a BS in Public Accounting from Seton Hall University, and was a CPA with Deloitte & Touche prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry. He served for five years on the Board of Directors for the New Jersey Chapter of the Epilepsy Foundation, and is currently an Executive Committee Member at Daytop, an adolescent drug rehabilitation program.