John Yerger has more than 30 years of executive experience building, growing, and turning around global technology businesses in the U.S., Europe, Mexico, and Asia. He has significant experience in market creation, high technology manufacturing, and successfully developing and taking products to market in companies ranging from start-ups to multi-billion dollars in sales.

Most recently, as president and chief executive officer of Advanced Diamond Technologies, he led its growth from a pre-revenue nanotechnology spin-off from Argonne National Laboratory. Prior to joining ADT, John was president and chief executive officer of Total Electronics which was purchased in bankruptcy, grew 300 percent organically and through M&A to $65 million in sales, and sold to Kinpo. He also played a leading role in bringing revolutionary new products to market and turning around industrial automation businesses at DEK and Universal Instruments, both subsidiaries of Dover, Inc. at the time. These products received several international product awards, doubled in sales, and grew profitability substantially. The product platform at DEK remains the market leader now, 20 years later.

John has also held several leadership positions in nonprofit entities. He currently serves in leadership roles in both the Cornell University and University of North Carolina alumni/parent organizations, with a focus on improving the health and well-being of students through inclusion, equity, and respect for diversity. He served in a leadership role with a parent-child organization dedicated to both developing father-daughter bonds and promoting the history and tradition of Native American culture. He was the lay leader of his church and participated in its leadership organization for several years. John holds a bachelor’s degree, and master’s degrees in engineering and business administration from Cornell University where he received the Supplier Excellence Alliance’s Richard Hall Award for Leadership Excellence.