DENVER, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Platte River Ventures is pleased to announce the appointment of Richard Wood as Chief Executive Officer of PRV Aerospace, the parent company of its four aerospace operating companies. Richard brings more than two decades of management and manufacturing experience, including fourteen years in the aerospace industry, to the leadership of PRV Aerospace. He will provide strategic and operational leadership for PRV Aerospace, including the continued integration of the existing aerospace businesses and anticipated future acquisitions.

Richard joins PRV Aerospace having served as Group Vice President of Esterline Corporation, where he had responsibility for nine businesses with combined sales in excess of $350 million and more than 2,600 employees. These businesses included Esterline Sensors, Esterline Engineered Materials and Esterline Motion, each of which was a supplier of critical parts to the aerospace industry. Prior to joining Esterline, Richard served as Managing Director of the Weston Group, a subsidiary of The Roxboro Group PLC, where he integrated and managed a group of three aerospace sensor businesses: Weston Aerospace, Norwich Aero, and Pressure Systems Inc. Richard began his management career with AB Electronics.

"We are pleased to have attracted a person of Richard's talents to lead PRV Aerospace," said J. Landis Martin, Founder and Managing Director of Platte River Ventures. "Richard will provide valuable leadership to our existing companies and the future acquisitions we expect to add to PRV Aerospace. We continue to seek to acquire successful aerospace component and assembly suppliers that provide highly engineered products and services and demonstrate compelling economic value for their customers."

About PRV Aerospace

PRV Aerospace is currently comprised of four operating companies. Tell Tool Inc., located in Westfield, MA, manufactures intricately machined, critical jet engine and jet hydraulics components. Precision Machine Works, Inc., based in Tacoma, WA, specializes in the manufacture and assembly of hard metal structural components. Aero Design Manufacturing, Inc., located in Phoenix, AZ, focuses on the manufacture, assembly and kitting of complex engine and control components. Giddens Industries, Inc., based in Everett, WA, manufactures complex machined and precision sheet metal parts and integrated subassemblies.

About Platte River Ventures

Based in Denver, Colorado, Platte River Ventures is a private equity investment firm that focuses on small and middle market operating companies. Utilizing the significant operating expertise of its principals, PRV serves as a value-added investor to its management partners. The firm pursues transactions in which it believes it can provide meaningful value to a company through the previous industry experience or other institutional expertise of its investment professionals. Specifically, the firm capitalizes heavily on the significant operating experience of its principals to serve as a value-added partner following the closing of its investments. For more information on Platte River Ventures, please visit http://www.platteriverventures.com.

SOURCE Platte River Ventures