MiddleGround Capital
Dinesh Vasandani is the Director of Operations. Originally from Mumbai, India, Dinesh moved to Columbus, Ohio during high school. He graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering before beginning a three-semester co-op at Toyota, where he met John Stewart. Dinesh worked at Toyota for 17 years (ultimately managing Assembly Operations) before […]
John is the Founding & Managing Partner of MiddleGround where he is responsible for the overall management of the firm. He is also a Member of the Investment Committee and acts as our ESG Champion. John started his career as an hourly line worker at Toyota Motor Corporation and held numerous management and executive positions […]
Eric Polen is a Vice President on our Operations Team and joined us after a decade at the Goodyear Tire Company where he was the Finance Business Partner. He spent his last two years at Goodyear working in the plants each day, priming him perfectly to roll his sleeves up at our portfolio companies. While […]
Ron is a Vice President on the Operations Team, supporting human capital needs across our portfolio. Prior to joining MiddleGround, Ron worked as an HR professional in the automotive industry for 20+ years including stints at Toyota (TMMK) and Volkswagen Chattanooga. He earned his Bachelor’s in psychology and Master’s in industrial/organizational psychology from Western Kentucky […]
Melis is our Vice President of Operations in the Amsterdam Office. Born and raised in Turkey, Melis earned her degree from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. Post-graduation, Melis spent 15 years working for Sensata Technologies, while she stayed at the same company, she lived all over the world in places like Bulgaria, Germany, […]
Paul O’Brien is a Managing Director of Human Capital for Operations. Paul earned his B.S. degree from Southern Illinois University and began his career at Hyatt Hotels. His people and conflict resolution skills made an impression, and he was encouraged to explore Human Resources, quickly becoming a HR Director. Following his time in hospitality, Paul […]
Kelly is a Managing Director on our Operations Team. She has been in the private equity industry since 2016, when she first started working alongside John, Scot, and Lauren at the prior firm. While acting as an Operating Executive there, Kelly served as the CFO of a $150 million wire harness and cable assembly portfolio […]
Alicia is a Director on our Operations Team. She joined us from Mubea where she acted as General Manager, Powertrain North America. Prior to Mubea, Alicia held a Quality Manager position at Benteler Automotive where she gained over 11 years of experience across a variety of roles. Despite Alicia working at MiddleGround, where nearly all […]
Christian is based in our Amsterdam office and acts as a Vice President of Operations in our Amsterdam Office. Christian has a non-traditional career path, starting out at age 15 as an apprentice electrician at Siemans. He returned to school and gained his Electrical Engineering degree which enabled him to work in electronics manufacturing as […]
Robert joined our Amsterdam office as the Managing Director, Head of EU Operations Team to share his wealth of knowledge in supply chain optimization. Robert brings a unique combination of hands-on operational experience with leadership roles in McKinsey & Company’s supply chain practice, where he focused on elevating supply chain organizations and networks to unlock […]