Natural Resources >> CEO Interviews >> December 23, 2002
JAMES G. BINCH is President and Chief Executive Officer of Memry
Corporation. He became head of Memry Corporation in 1992 and since then
has devoted his efforts to building the company from the bottom up,
starting with fewer than 10 employees in 1993 to the more-than 375
employees today. Among his accomplishments, he has acquired a division
of Raychem Corp., purchased a company in Belgium, bought a company in
Massachusetts, sold a subsidiary, personally raised over $15 million in
private equity and grown the core shape memory business 20-fold. The
company, under his leadership, has been named one of the 50 fastest
growing companies in Connecticut for seven consecutive years. Now, with
the company refocused and broadened with the recent acquisition of
Putnam Plastics Corporation, it is ready to make its mark on the medical
device industry. Mr. Binch is striving to considerably broaden the
company's revenue and material technology base and create significant
shareholder value. A graduate Engineer from Princeton University, and
with an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania,
Mr. Binch started his career as a general management consultant with
Cresap, McCormick and Paget (now part of TPF&C) and went on to become
Vice President of Planning at Champion Building Products. He spent seven
years in senior roles with Combustion Engineering (C-E) including three
years as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Engineering Sector
of C-E and its principal subsidiary, Lummus-Crest, Inc., with more than
3,000 employees, offices in eight countries and annual contract volumes
in excess of $2 billion. Mr. Binch moved into merchant banking by
founding Trinity Capital Corporation in 1987. He led a buyout of Trinity
Capital's principal investments through the formation of Harbour
Holdings LP, of which Harbour Investment Corporation was the sole
general partner. It was through investment activity at Trinity Capital,
and later Harbour, that his backers became major shareholders and he
ultimately became CEO of Memry. He is a Trustee of Trinity College
School in Ontario, Canada, and is a Director of 169855 Canada Inc. and
Visual Technologies Ltd. He also served previously as a local Red Cross
Chapter Chairman. Profile
a thumbnail sketch of what you do?
Mr. Binch: Memry was founded in 1983 in Connecticut essentially
to conduct applications
