D Magazine – February 2022
DALLAS (February 2022) – Catalyze Dallas Holdings, LLC has welcomed Ron Nicol, Senior Advisor at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), to its Board of Advisors. A member of several distinguished boards, Nicol is an award-winning business consultant who brings profound insight into public and private enterprise to Catalyze, which creates scalable businesses by commercializing intellectual property and products sourced from global defense, aerospace, and industrial companies.
“We work closely with our Board to identify the most promising innovations to commercialize as standalone companies,” said Joe D’Cruz, Founder and Managing Director of Catalyze Dallas. “Our unique approach has been bolstered by decades of executive experience across aerospace, defense, energy, telecommunications and government; areas where Ron will prove a valuable asset and partner as we continue to expand our portfolio in 2022.”
Nicol has served in a variety of roles at BCG since joining the firm in 1987. Before becoming a senior advisor, he was a longtime senior partner and managing director, holding roles including global leader of the Technology, Media & Telecommunications practice and chairman of North and South America. Nicol has worked on major business transformations with a number of Fortune 50 companies, and received a Top 25 Consultant award from Consulting Magazine. Nicol has also held senior positions with Babcock and Wilcox and was a US naval officer, serving aboard a nuclear ballistic missile submarine and teaching nuclear engineering.
Additional members of Catalyze’s Board include:
Frank Cappuccio, Advisor to the Defense Science Board, former Executive Vice President and General Manager of Skunk Works
Ed Dolanski, former President of Boeing Government Services and former President and CEO of Aviall, a Boeing company
Thomas C. Leppert, Chairman of Austin Industries, former Dallas Mayor, former CEO of Kaplan and Turner Construction Company
Dr. Bobby B. Lyle, CEO of Lyco Energy, SMU Trustee (Lyle School of Engineering)
General Norton A. Schwartz (Emeritus), former Chief of Staff of the USAF (Ret.), President and CEO of Business Executives for National Security
The Honorable Heidi Shyu (Emeritus), Chairman of the Board for Roboteam America, former Assistant Secretary of the Army, former Vice President of Technology Strategy at Raytheon
Major General (Ret.) Keith Thurgood, Ph. D., Interim CEO for Department of Defense Community Services Reform
Robert F. Weiss, former President of Skunk Works, former Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin
Catalyze works to unleash the full value and potential of investments in innovation. Its founders, Joe and Tricia D’Cruz, were recognized in 2021 as Entrepreneur Of The Year finalists by Ernst & Young for their proven model of acquiring and spinning out underperforming business units and purpose-built assets as successful entrepreneurial ventures. Current portfolio companies include Alpine Advanced Materials, which delivers lightweight custom-engineered parts using Lockheed Martin technology, and Metro Aerospace, a leader in certified 3D printed aerospace components, both of which have found new markets and uses since being licensed by Catalyze.
Nicol holds a master’s in business administration from Duke University where he was named a Fuqua Scholar by faculty of the Fuqua School of Business, and a bachelor’s of science in physics from the United States Naval Academy. He is also a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Prize for outstanding engineering work.
About Alpine Advanced Materials
Alpine Advanced Materials is a leading expert in the design and manufacture of custom-engineered parts and products for the world’s most demanding aerospace, defense, energy, space, and outdoor applications. The company commercializes high-performance materials originally developed and qualified by top defense contractors, including its flagship HX5® military aviation-grade thermoplastic nanocomposite.
Engineered to replace machined aluminum, HX5 has been both tested and proven against the harshest environments in the world. HX5 is currently in use on jet fighters, high-speed helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, amphibious transport vehicles, rockets, and satellites, and is highly adaptable without sacrificing strength or performance. Its customization and unrivaled manufacturability here in the U.S. combined with its high tolerance and dimensional stability make it an ideal alternative to the cost and production challenges associated with aluminum.
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