Michael Petras, Former CEO of GE Lighting, Named CEO of Cleveland-Based Specialty Medical Supplies Leader

CLEVELAND, March 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- HGI Global Holdings, Inc., a leading provider of specialty medical products to chronic disease patients, today announced the appointment of Michael B. Petras, Jr. as Chief Executive Officer, effective March 21.

Mr. Petras, 43, joins HGI from GE Lighting, the Cleveland-based $3 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) where he served as President and Chief Executive Officer.  Michael has held general management positions within General Electric since 1995. Since 2005, he has been responsible for multi-billion dollar businesses, managing supply chain, marketing, finance, manufacturing, and engineering and administration functions.  

The CEO role has been vacant since October 2010, when HGI was acquired by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, LLC (CD&R) and GS Capital Partners. Today's announcement follows the recent promotion of Kurt Packer to the position of President and Chief Operating Officer.

"Michael is a proven business builder with a passion for growing businesses and leading large, complex enterprises to new levels of financial and operating performance excellence," said Paul S. Pressler, Chairman of HGI and an Operating Partner at CD&R. "He is well versed in distribution businesses and will bring to the organization deep sales, marketing and brand management experience."

Mr. Petras said, "HGI is a very dynamic company operating in a large and growing market with a long history of improving the quality of patient care and lowering healthcare costs for patients and managed care organizations.  I look forward to working with the talented HGI team to build on their impressive accomplishments in serving its valued customer network and ultimately those people who depend on the specialty medical products the company distributes."

Prior to leading GE Lighting, Mr. Petras was President and CEO of Lighting and Industrial.  Before that, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of GE's LED (light-emitting diodes) business, GE Lighting Solutions. During more than 18 years at GE, Petras has advanced through roles within GE in Six Sigma Quality, Product Management, and Sales and Marketing.

Mr. Petras, a Cleveland native, is very active in the community.  He is a board member of United Way of Cleveland, John Carroll University and the Greater Cleveland Partnership, a 16,000-member association of Northeast Ohio companies and organizations. He is a past board member of Achievement Centers for Children and remains active with the organization today. In 2009, he was recognized by Achievement Centers as its "annual honoree."

Mr. Petras holds an MBA degree in marketing from Case Western Reserve University and a bachelor's degree in finance from John Carroll University.

About HGI Holding, Inc.

Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, HGI Holding, Inc. ("HGI") is a leading mail-order, direct-to-consumer provider of disposable medical products to chronic disease patients.  The company operates through two segments, Edgepark Medical Supplies and Independence Medical.  Edgepark contracts directly with over 600 managed care organizations (MCOs) to provide direct-to-consumer home delivery of products to approximately 300,000 patients, while also providing MCOs with value-added services that drive utilization, billing efficiencies and patient compliance.  Independence serves as an outsourced supply chain for approximately 5,500 commercial customers, including durable medical equipment suppliers, independent pharmacies and wholesale distributors. Funds managed by CD&R and GS Capital Partners are HGI's primary shareholders.  For more information, please visit www.edgepark.com and www.indemed.com.

SOURCE HGI Global Holdings, Inc.