C-Suite Awards: Gregory Cole (Washington Business Journal)
Greg Cole has spent a decade with K2M Group Holdings Inc., joining in 2008 after helping take XM Satellite Radio public. At the time, he was looking for another early-stage company with similar aspirations. That’s when he connected with a college classmate, K2M CEO Eric Major.
Since then, the spinal device maker has had its ups and down — with more ups. In 2010, Cole and Major signed a deal with their first private equity partner, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. “We really scrambled back then to find a funding source to keep the company running and growing,” Cole said. “It’s very stressful when you don’t have a lot of money and you’re searching for options and alternatives, and that ended up being a blessing for us.”
Next came the initial public offering, 10 years after the company was founded. Then in 2016, the company moved into a new $30 million headquarters after receiving $850,000 in state incentives to stay in Leesburg and create 100 jobs. But perhaps the biggest development came this year, when the nearly 500-employee, $258 million business closed its $1.4 billion sale to Kalamazoo, Michigan-based medical d...
