Fortive Corporation (“Fortive”) (NYSE: FTV) today announced the appointment of Read Simmons as Senior Vice President of Strategy and the promotion of Jonathan Schwarz to Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, both effective February 1, 2021. Mr. Simmons will report directly to Jim Lico, Fortive’s President and Chief Executive Officer, and will lead Fortive’s strategic development efforts, including as they relate to mergers & acquisitions (M&A) and investment decisions, as well as organic growth strategies across all segments at Fortive. Mr. Schwarz will continue to lead Fortive’s Corporate Development function, including oversight of Fortive’s capital allocation and M&A efforts, and will also oversee Fortive’s tax and treasury teams.
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Mr. Simmons joins Fortive from Vista Equity Partners, a leading private investment firm focused on software, data, and technology-enabled businesses. At Vista, he served as President of Vista Consulting Group, leading the firm’s dedicated internal consulting organization and developing strategies to accelerate growth, organizational capacity, and talent development throughout Vista’s private equity portfolio.
Mr. Lico stated: “We’re very excited for Read to join the Fortive team. After a period of significant portfolio transformation at Fortive, we’re poised to accelerate growth in the years ahead as we continue to scale our leading positions providing critical software-enabled workflow solutions to our customers. Read has significant experience leading strategy development across a broad range of technology and software companies, supporting the consistent delivery of competitive differentiation, innovation, and value-enhancing improvements. He will bring a unique set of skills and perspectives to our team and will further expand our thinking not only around organic growth strategy, but also the use of capital allocation to accelerate that strategy in the years ahead.”
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Prior to joining Vista, Mr. Simmons was a Partner at Bain & Company, where he served as a Director in its Private Equity Practice and led its Technology, Media, and Telecommunications vertical and spearheaded Bain’s Digital and Advanced Analytics Practice. While at Bain, Mr. Simmons also led various internal talent development initiatives, including management of global training programs and serving as the HR Partner for Bain’s Bay Area offices.
Mr. Schwarz will retain responsibility for M&A-related activity at Fortive and is taking on responsibility for Fortive’s tax and treasury functions. In this role, he will continue to report to Chuck McLaughlin, Fortive’s Chief Financial Officer.
Mr. Lico continued: “Jon has played a critical leadership role at Fortive from the beginning, having joined the team in 2015 as Vice President of Corporate Development. Jon and his team have shown an extraordinary ability to drive portfolio growth and transformation, helping Fortive close over $8.5 billion in strategic acquisitions including significant enhancements to our capabilities in software-enabled workflows. Jon has also worked closely with operating company leadership and cross-functional teams at Fortive to guide the continuous improvement of our M&A process.”
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