Senior Leadership

Stefan Karnavas is President of our Materials Science and Engineering Science businesses. 

Serving as EAG’s Chief Financial Officer 2015-2018, Stefan played a key role in the company’s recent growth trajectory and its recapitalization under Eurofins Scientific ownership. On January 1, 2019, he assumed the role of President of Eurofins EAG and is responsible for leading the company’s Materials Science and Engineering Science businesses.

Prior to joining EAG, Stefan served as CFO of SKLZ, a consumer-branded, sports training equipment manufacturer where he was responsible for Finance, Accounting, IT and Corporate Development. Stefan was engaged by SKLZ’ board of directors to develop, align and execute a multi-year operating plan, corporate goals and a financing strategy which led to the successful completion of a $40 million round of private equity at an attractive valuation. During Stefan’s four-year tenure at SKLZ, revenues doubled and the valuation of the company quadrupled.

Stefan spent 10 years at Leap Wireless International/Cricket Wireless, a publicly traded mobile communications company that grew from a start up to over 5 million customers and $5 billion in revenue and in 2014 was acquired by AT&T. Stefan initially served as the CFO of Cricket during the start-up phase and subsequently served the parent company in roles of increasing responsibility including VP Finance – FP&A, VP Finance – Network Operations, IT and Real Estate, and VP Finance & Treasurer. During his tenure, Stefan raised over $5.0 billion of gross debt and equity capital. He led a team that renegotiated vendor contracts during Leap’s corporate restructure that reduced annual operating costs by $140 million or 20% of Leap cost structure.

Stefan Karnavas served as CFO of Cobblestone Golf Group, a private equity sponsored consolidator of private and public golf clubs which tripled in size during his tenure. Cobblestone grew to 45 properties, $150 million in revenue, $42 million in EBITDA and 3,400 employees. While at Cobblestone, Stefan successfully re-capitalized the company with a $100 million public high yield debt offering, integrated 30 acquisitions and reduced G&A expenses by $1 million through accounting organization synergies. The company exited at a valuation of over $400 million.

Stefan served as Treasurer and Director of Corporate Development for Horizon Cellular Group, where he assisted in raising over $100 million in private equity and acquired cellular franchises valued at $65 million. Stefan began his professional career at Fidelity Bank and served as an Investment Officer for the venture capital subsidiary of the bank, where he made investments in leveraged buyouts and emerging growth companies.

Stefan graduated from the University of Denver with a BSBA in Finance and from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management with an MBA.

Dr. Patricia M. Lindley has been Executive Vice President of EAG’s Materials Science division since March 2008.

Pat joined EAG, then named Charles Evans and Associates, in 1991 as a Staff Analyst where her particular field of expertise is in TOF-SIMS analysis. Her analytical research focused on developing polymer and organic applications of TOF-SIMS, as well as evaluating cleanroom contamination.

During her tenure at EAG, Pat has advanced through increasingly responsible management positions in operations and quality. She led the quality program for Charles Evans’ initial ISO certification, directed the development and implementation of the lab’s LIMS system, and developed the company’s export compliance program.

Prior to joining EAG, Dr. Lindley was a Research Chemist and an Officer in the US Air Force for four years, where she worked on the development of high-temperature polymers for structural  application, as well as polymers for third-order nonlinear optical materials.

Dr. Lindley received a Ph.D. in Organic/Polymer Chemistry from the University of Maryland.

Patrick joined EAG Laboratories in 1998 as a Staff Scientist in the TOF-SIMS group working on commercial analytical projects. During his tenure at EAG, Patrick has broadened his analytical expertise and advanced through various management positions in operations and quality. He led EAG’s first A2LA accreditation and the integration of newly acquired laboratories into EAG’s quality system.

In recent years, Patrick has grown EAG’s Advanced Microscopy business into a global leader of imaging services, and is currently the chairmen of EAG’s Innovation Council, which has been established to advance process automation and data science applications.

Prior to joining EAG, Patrick worked as Scientist and Laboratory Manager at Evonik Industries in Germany, where he worked on surface characterization of polymer filler materials.

Patrick received a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Darmstadt, Germany.

Aram Sarkissian joined EAG in 2007 as part of the acquisition of Accurel, where he served in a variety of roles with increasing responsibilities in Engineering, Sales & Marketing, and Management. Aram was instrumental in the development of the FIB circuit edit business, hiring and leading electrical engineers knowledgeable in both circuit and semiconductor processes.  The teams’ strong understanding of system and device interaction lead to results with higher yields and entry to work on advanced technology nodes.

Aram helped start a microelectronics Failure Analysis laboratory which grew to one of largest domestic commercial FA labs to support the growing number of fab-less, lab-less semiconductor companies.

Aram Sarkissian was part of the team that established an Advanced Microscopy lab, the first commercial lab to offer Dual Beam FIB/SEM services, and helped bring TEM services into more widespread use for R&D by reducing turnaround times on advanced applications.

His understanding of the technology, markets and customers helped early integration efforts as several acquired labs were consolidated to form a more comprehensive approach to problem solving across a range of disciplines including: Test, Reliability, Debug and Failure Analysis.

Aram holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley.

Mehdi Batel is Senior Vice President of our Materials Science and Engineering Science businesses in Europe.

Mehdi joined as Senior Vice President for EAG Laboratories European operations in January 2021.

Prior to joining, Mehdi was Group Senior Vice-President at Mistras Group Inc. (NYSE: MG), in charge of full European operations. He is an experienced multi-P&L senior executive in technology-driven and service companies, specialized mainly in instrumentation, metrology, material testing, advanced non-destructive evaluation and microscopy, fracture mechanics, failure analysis and mechanical integrity. As a member of the Mistras executive committee, Mehdi was leading the operations, strategy and the development of the group’s international division, which operated mainly in Europe in various markets, including Aerospace & Defence, Oil & Gas, Power Generation and others. During his 12 years at Mistras, he expanded the group by achieving sustainable profitable growth through both organic and M&A initiatives, as well as innovative value proposition developments.

Prior to Mistras, Mehdi held various leadership roles in the USA and in Europe, at renowned test and measurement companies operating across the globe, including Polytec GmbH, leader in optics, photonics, spectroscopy and analytics, as well as Brüel & Kjaer, member of Spectris Technologies PLC (LSE: SXS), leader in precision instrumentation technologies.

Mehdi holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA) with a thesis in Material Science and Acoustics that was funded by the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC Carderock division). He also holds an Executive MBA from both University Paris-Dauphine-PSL (France) and University of Montreal (Canada). Mehdi published more than 20 scientific articles at international events and is a member of several professional engineering organizations.

Rakesh joined as Vice President & General Manager, EAG China in October 2018,

Prior to joining EAG, Rakesh has held various positions at Bureau Veritas including Vice President, Industry and Building and Infrastructure- South Asia, Country Chief Executive Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei – Industry and Facilities, Director Oil and Gas and Transport and Logistics China spanning, Quality Surveyor in India over 19 years. He started his career at a Shipyard in Mumbai, India and built naval ships for 7 years.

Rakesh graduated from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies where he received a Master’s in Finnancial Management while he holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Production Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology.

James joined as Managing Director, EAG Laboratories Japan in April 2019.

Prior to joining EAG, James was a Director of BioReliance Testing Services for Merck Life Science and has held various positions at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

James graduated from Korea University where he received a Bachelor and Masters in Life and Environmental Sciences.

Zhiguo Zhang is Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations our Materials Science and Engineering Science businesses. 

Zhiguo Zhang “ZZ” joined EAG Laboratories Sr. Vice President, Commercial Operations in March 2019. ZZ has extensive experience serving several global end-markets, including medical device, integrated device manufactures, integrated circuits, semiconductor foundries, LED, solar, cell phones and computing and cloud companies.

Born in China, ZZ graduated from Beijing University of Chemical Technology as a Design Engineer. After receiving his undergraduate degree, he attended Ohio State University, where he received master’s degrees in both Chemical Engineering and Computer Science, and subsequently earned an MBA from Ohio State’s Fisher School of Business. While in school, he held engineering roles at Cabot Corporation and Diamond Innovations. Upon receiving his MBA, ZZ joined what is now Tosoh SMD, formerly Varian Specialty Metals. He held a variety of positions there for 11 years, the final as Director of Global Sales and Marketing. In 2016, ZZ moved to New Jersey as Director, Sales and Marketing for Ametek Coining. ZZ is fluent in Mandarin and English.

From his home base in San Diego, ZZ has responsibility for the full scope of commercial strategy and activity across EAG Laboratories in the US and internationally. He works closely with our operational leaders, and is accountable for driving organic growth.

Dan Tilley joined EAG as Chief Information Officer in October, 2015.

Prior to joining EAG, Dan was the CIO and EVP at ClubCorp where he worked in roles of increasing responsibility for eight years.  ClubCorp is a publicly traded company with 20,000+ full time and seasonal employees and 200 locations. Dan served as President of the company’s 503c, Employee Partner Care Foundation which provided over $2m in grants. He oversaw a project to centralize their billing system resulting in reduced annual operating expenses by $4 million and reduced IT and Accounting costs by $15 million annually by implementing a multi-year outsourcing plan.

Dan was a founding partner of Brightstar Golf Group and filled a variety of roles for the start up.

Before, Dan Tilley was CIO and VP Finance at Spectrum Clubs, in the health and fitness market with 100k members.  During his 4 years, he managed numerous cost cutting initiatives for IT, accounting and finance functions.

Dan was the VP and CIO at Cobblestone Golf Group where he had responsibility for IT, District Accounting, Training/Transitions, Internal Audit, Staffing, and Reporting.

Dan received a BS from University of Pittsburgh in Computer Science and Mathematics.

Shelly Lu is Vice President of Finance for our Materials Science and Engineering Science businesses. 

Shelly is a seasoned finance professional passionate about creating metrics and operating procedures, as well as partnering with the business to drive understanding of the underlying levers of growth. In addition to being a effective operator, she is a strategic business partner, with a strong understanding of financial modeling and analysis, strategic planning, management reporting, budgeting and forecasting, business valuation and integration, strategic pricing, ROI study and commercial support. Prior to joining EAG Laboratories in 2016, Shelly spent 13 years with the North America division of ResMed, managing its accounting and FP&A functions.

Shelly has a Master’s in English Literature from Georgetown University, MBA from Cornell University, an active CFA and CA CPA license.

Mireille Duclos joined EAG Laboratories in 2020 as the Vice President of Human Resources.

Mireille is an accomplished Senior Human Resources leader with a proven track record of aligning HR with operational strategies, overcoming employee retention challenges, and enhancing performance through a variety of Employee Engagement strategies. She leverages metrics to prioritize her team’s focus, always in support of business growth. She has a strong background in executive coaching and training and development. She has spent her career supporting and partnering with operating and sales teams across a variety of industries including Sears, Nestlé, and Leiters Pharmaceuticals.

Born in Canada, Mireille graduated from the University of Atlanta with a B.B.A in Human Resources Management, and is working on her Masters in Human Resources Management from USC.