Patrick Barge is a global executive, engineer, and business leader whose career spans more than 35 years across automotive technology, advanced manufacturing, emissions control, filtration, and engineered materials. His professional journey has been defined by the ability to connect deep technical expertise with commercial strategy, operational execution, and organizational leadership. From his early engineering career in France to senior global leadership roles with Cummins and his tenure as Chief Executive Officer of ESW Group, Patrick has built a reputation for guiding technology-driven organizations through growth, transformation, and increasingly complex market environments. His experience encompasses the United States, Europe, Asia, Brazil, and India, giving him a broad international perspective on manufacturing, technology commercialization, regulatory change, and global business development.
Patrick began his career in France as a Project Engineer with Fiberweb Group, where he focused on product and process development involving nonwoven products and multiple manufacturing technologies. He subsequently joined Jacob Holm & Sons as R&D and Business Development Manager, becoming part of the leadership team of a startup organization and assuming responsibility for both product and market development. These formative roles established a foundation in polymer extrusion, nonwoven technologies, manufacturing processes, innovation, and commercialization. Patrick later joined Polymer Group Inc. as Group Director of Research and Development, where he led a global product development organization supporting multiple business units and markets, including automotive, industrial, hygiene, and medical applications. The progression demonstrated an early ability to move beyond technical problem-solving into the broader leadership of innovation portfolios and international organizations.
A defining chapter of Patrick’s career began when he joined Cummins Inc., one of the world’s leading engine and power technology companies. His first senior leadership assignment within Cummins Filtration placed him in charge of global research, technology, and product development organizations serving diesel and natural gas engine applications. He managed an operational budget of approximately $40 million and an organization of roughly 230 employees working across five technical centers in four global locations. His responsibilities encompassed technologies such as fuel, lubricant and coolant filtration, air intake systems, crankcase ventilation, and exhaust products serving heavy-duty, medium-duty, light-duty commercial vehicle, and high-horsepower applications. As a member of the business unit leadership team and the broader Cummins technology leadership organization, Patrick helped connect engineering innovation with global business objectives.
Patrick’s leadership responsibilities expanded significantly when he became Executive Director of Engineering and Technology for Cummins Emission Solutions. In this capacity, he was responsible for global research, technology, and product development organizations developing advanced emissions-control systems for diesel and natural gas engines. He oversaw an approximately $150 million operational budget and some 700 employees working through six technical centers across five global locations. His teams developed technologies supporting increasingly stringent emissions standards in mature and emerging markets for both on-highway and off-highway applications. Patrick’s technical expertise includes integrated aftertreatment systems, diesel oxidation catalysts, diesel particulate filters, selective catalytic reduction, catalyst technologies, hydrocarbon and ammonia dosing systems, sensors, software, controls, acoustics, packaging, and flow dynamics.
This work placed Patrick at the intersection of engineering, environmental regulation, manufacturing, and commercial transportation during a period of profound technological change. As part of the leadership team for Cummins Emission Solutions, a business with approximately $2.5 billion in revenue, he contributed to technology strategy, functional excellence, organizational development, and the creation of products that helped strengthen the division’s global market position. His experience gave him a sophisticated understanding of how regulatory requirements can reshape entire industries and how companies can respond by translating engineering capability into differentiated products and sustainable competitive advantage. Rather than viewing technology as an isolated function, Patrick has consistently approached it as a strategic business lever capable of creating growth, strengthening customer relationships, and positioning organizations for long-term success.
Patrick later moved to Germany to serve as Executive Director and General Manager of the European business for Cummins Emission Solutions. He assumed responsibility for a European operation representing approximately €300 million in profit-and-loss responsibility, along with two manufacturing facilities in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands and functional organizations spanning engineering, finance, human resources, sales and marketing, purchasing, and operations. He developed and implemented a European growth strategy focused on achieving market leadership across on-highway and off-highway applications while managing relationships with major European customers including Daimler, Volvo, Volkswagen/MAN/Scania, and Deutz. His leadership contributed to significant financial improvement, including approximately 10 percent return on sales in 2014, while further broadening his expertise from global technology leadership into comprehensive general management.
In 2015, Patrick became Chief Executive Officer of ESW Group, a private-equity-owned company providing emissions-control products and services to the medium- and heavy-duty diesel industries. His leadership has centered on transforming the organization from a heavy-duty commercial vehicle retrofit business into a leading U.S. aftermarket provider of emissions-control components and an emissions-testing services provider. Patrick developed and implemented the company’s transformation and growth strategy, established a multichannel commercial model spanning OEMs, OES organizations, parts distributors, dealers, and buying groups, and built a broad distribution network supported by the necessary supply, logistics, and distribution infrastructure. He also established a new manufacturing operation to support the evolving business model. Under his leadership, the business achieved approximately threefold revenue growth while reaching an EBITDA margin of roughly 20 percent.
Across his career, Patrick has developed particular expertise in the heavy-duty and medium-duty transportation markets, automotive aftermarket supply, emissions technology, engineering, manufacturing, product development, and business transformation. His perspective is unusual in its breadth: he understands technology from the standpoint of an engineer, product development from the standpoint of an R&D leader, manufacturing from an operational perspective, markets from a commercial perspective, and enterprise performance from the position of a CEO and P&L leader. This combination allows him to assess opportunities and challenges across the entire value chain, from emerging regulations and technology roadmaps to supply chains, manufacturing capability, distribution channels, customer requirements, organizational structure, and financial performance.
Patrick’s international experience is equally central to his leadership perspective. His career has included significant exposure to the United States, France, Germany, broader Europe, Asia, Brazil, and India, and he has led technical and business organizations operating across multiple countries and cultures. He has also gained board-level experience through service on the board of an Indian joint venture during his Cummins career and through active board involvement associated with a private-equity-backed organization. These experiences have given him practical insight into governance, stakeholder alignment, strategic partnerships, global expansion, and the responsibilities that accompany oversight of complex organizations. His ability to operate across geographic and cultural boundaries strengthens the perspective he can bring to companies navigating international markets or global supply and technology ecosystems.
Patrick holds a Master of Engineering in Polymer/Plastics Engineering from ESITE in France and a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Metz University of Technology and Science. His formal engineering education has remained a consistent foundation throughout his career, even as his responsibilities expanded from hands-on technical development to global R&D leadership, general management, transformation, and chief executive leadership. He speaks English and has capabilities in French and German, complementing a career characterized by substantial international engagement. His experience illustrates the value of technical rigor combined with commercial judgment: understanding how something works is important, but understanding how to build an organization, market, and strategy around that technology is what ultimately creates enterprise value.
As Patrick considers the next chapter of his professional journey, board and advisory service represents a natural extension of the experience accumulated throughout his career. He is particularly positioned to contribute to mid-cap and larger organizations in automotive, transportation, manufacturing, aftermarket, advanced engineering, and adjacent technology-driven industries. He can bring a boardroom perspective informed by decades of executive decision-making, global operations, technology strategy, P&L responsibility, private-equity ownership, manufacturing, business transformation, and organizational leadership. His value is not confined to emissions technology; it lies more broadly in helping leadership teams evaluate complex technical and commercial decisions, recognize strategic opportunities, manage change, and translate ambitious objectives into executable plans.
Beyond his professional responsibilities, Patrick values church, sports, personal relationships, and the principles of service and contribution that have accompanied his leadership journey. His interest in board service reflects a desire to apply his accumulated knowledge and experience in new environments while continuing to support organizations facing consequential strategic decisions. After more than three decades of building technologies, leading international teams, managing businesses, and transforming organizations, Patrick offers the combination of technical credibility and executive perspective needed to engage meaningfully with both management teams and fellow directors. He approaches leadership as a responsibility to create enduring value through disciplined thinking, strong execution, capable people, and decisions grounded in both experience and future opportunity.
Character:
Patrick demonstrates character through a career built on accountability, disciplined leadership, and responsibility for organizations operating in demanding technical and commercial environments. His commitment to service, professional contribution, and creating lasting organizational value reflects a leadership philosophy grounded in integrity and stewardship.
Knowledge:
Bringing more than 35 years of knowledge spanning engineering, automotive and transportation technologies, emissions control, filtration, manufacturing, aftermarket distribution, R&D, and global business leadership. His combination of technical depth and CEO-level commercial experience enables him to understand complex challenges from both engineering and enterprise perspectives.
Strategic:
Patrick has repeatedly translated market change into actionable strategy, from developing technologies for new global emissions standards to transforming ESW Group’s business model and driving substantial growth. He combines long-range thinking with operational discipline, allowing him to evaluate where a business needs to go while remaining attentive to the capabilities, investments, and execution required to get there.
Communication:
His leadership of hundreds of employees across international technical centers, manufacturing operations, functional organizations, customers, partners, and executive teams demonstrates an ability to communicate across disciplines and cultures. His global experience enables him to translate complex technical and strategic issues into business priorities that diverse stakeholders can understand, align around, and execute.
