“Live life in a way where you help people.”
Steve Snedegar has spent more than 30 years leading businesses through growth, turnarounds, acquisitions, and operating change. A four-time CEO and experienced President, COO, and commercial leader, he brings boards and owners the perspective of an operator who has carried P&L accountability and put strategy into practice. His strength is helping leaders identify what is constraining performance, make the necessary decisions, and build the organization and systems to sustain results.
Steve is Founder and Managing Partner of Stage 5 Partners. He works with founder-led, private equity-backed, and middle-market businesses as a strategic advisor, executive coach, and fractional or interim executive. His engagements often begin when a company has outgrown its informal ways of operating, an acquisition has created integration challenges, results have fallen short, or a leadership transition demands greater clarity. He helps establish financial and administrative controls, clear ownership and decision rights, effective management rhythms, and repeatable operating processes. Commercial growth follows when the business has the capacity to support it.
At GMT Corporation, an approximately $100 million private equity-backed machining and fabrication company, Steve entered as a turnaround advisor and assumed broader executive leadership responsibilities. The business reversed six consecutive quarters of revenue decline and moved to a trajectory exceeding 30 percent year-over-year growth. On-time delivery rose from approximately 60 percent to 95 percent, defects fell from roughly 3,200 parts per million to fewer than 300, and inventory turns doubled from four to eight. GMT achieved its first profitable month in 18 months and earned John Deere Partner Status.
At Cutting Edge Machining & Automation, Steve held CEO, COO, CRO, and M&A advisory responsibilities while building a multi-site manufacturing platform. He sourced, diligenced, acquired, and integrated six companies in six months. He also consolidated four plants into one facility, introduced ERP, CRM, HR, and management systems, built a senior leadership team, and established a formal pricing process that produced increases of approximately 5 to 10 percent across the customer base. The experience reinforced his view that acquisitions create value only when leadership, processes, systems, and commercial execution are integrated.
As Division Vice President and General Manager at Tektronix, Steve led a $175 million U.S. business spanning field service, sales, marketing, finance, and human resources. He rebuilt its leadership structure, deployed Lean practices across more than 50 sites, and integrated eight acquisitions. The division delivered 20 percent bookings growth and 15 percent revenue growth while improving delivery and quality.
His earlier operating roles broadened that perspective. At Ryko Solutions, a roughly $150 million private equity-backed business, he led changes in field service and commercial operations, improving technician efficiency, inventory performance, and employee retention while helping present the company to prospective buyers. At Tyco SimplexGrinnell, he helped reverse a multi-year bookings decline within a $1.2 billion service business and contributed to 7.3 percent year-over-year revenue growth. Over more than a decade at Otis Elevator Company, he progressed through branch, regional, and national leadership roles, ultimately leading service sales and marketing for a $1.8 billion North American business.
Steve has also worked in early-stage technology. At FLASH Weather AI, he has served in fractional and interim executive capacities across operations, commercial strategy, finance, and investor readiness. His work included building sales processes and operating scorecards, establishing budgets and forecasts, improving reporting, and supporting fundraising and board communications.
For a board, Steve brings practical judgment on performance improvement, capital and cash discipline, leadership capability, acquisition integration, and the gap between a strategic plan and daily execution. He is especially interested in private equity-backed and founder-led middle-market companies facing a pivotal period of growth or change. His experience is deepest in manufacturing, industrial, field service, and business services, with operating and advisory work across other sectors as well.
Steve holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Old Dominion University. His development includes Lean Six Sigma and ACE Platinum training, Danaher and Fortive Business Systems Kaizen and problem-solving, and UTC leadership programs. He has worked across Europe, China, and South Korea and participates in executive peer organizations including Vistage. His community board service includes West Des Moines Lacrosse and Westborough Youth Football, alongside long-standing youth coaching and United Way involvement.
Steve’s personal philosophy is simple: “Live life in a way where you help people.” In business, that means developing leaders, facing difficult facts, and leaving organizations more capable than he found them.
Profile Sections
Character: Steve leads with accountability and a commitment to developing people. His executive, community board, and youth coaching work reflect a service-oriented approach to leadership.
Knowledge: His experience spans P&L leadership, finance, operations, sales, Lean transformation, M&A integration, and organizational design across startups, middle-market companies, and large enterprises.
Strategic: He connects board-level priorities to financial controls, decision rights, management rhythms, and measurable operating performance, particularly during growth, integration, and turnaround.
Communication: Steve has worked with boards, investors, owners, executive teams, employees, and customers to clarify difficult choices and align leaders around action.
Links
Stage 5 Partners: https://stage5partners.com
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/steve-snedegar
