About Gradian: Our Culture, Team & Mission

John Schneider leads Gradian as Chief Executive Officer, bringing more than 25 years of experience in HVAC and data centers across product management, engineering, and operations. As CEO, John is determined to leverage his executive leadership experience to lead Gradian in solving the most complex thermal management challenges for mission-critical facilities.

Prior to joining Gradian, John served as President, Americas for Copeland. Earlier in his career, he served as President of Therm-O-Disc, a division of Emerson Electric, Vice President/GM of Global Thermal Management at Vertiv, and in various leadership roles at Emerson Electric, including Vice President of Program Management and Vice President of Marketing. John holds an MBA from Xavier University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from The Ohio State University.

Lorenz Hofmann leads technology and engineering strategy at Gradian, identifying, developing, and delivering the thermal management and modular solutions that keep mission-critical facilities running. He brings more than 35 years of experience in fluid mechanics and product engineering, with a focus on building scalable, productized solutions that speed up execution and can be reused across programs. His work is grounded in a lifelong curiosity about fluid flow control and, more recently, artificial intelligence and neural networks. 

Prior to joining Gradian, Lorenz served as Chief Technology Officer and Global Vice President/GM of Modular Solutions, in a career built across Vertiv, Johnson Controls, Trane, SPX, and Ford. Lorenz holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt and has authored more than ten publications on fluid flow control. 

Jason Ulett leads Gradian's manufacturing and operational strategy as Chief Operating Officer, responsible for profitable growth and operational scale. He strives for world-class execution across safety, quality, manufacturing, supply chain, through continuous improvement at every Gradian location. He brings 31 years of experience across operations management, materials management, supply chain, and manufacturing strategy, with particular depth in greenfield operations and SIOP.

Prior to Gradian, Jason held senior operations roles at Modine Manufacturing, including Vice President of Strategic Operations for Data Center and Vice President/GM of Power Generation. He has also held the role of Senior Managing Director of Global Operations and Senior Director of Northern Operations at The Toro Company, as well as Senior Director of SIOP & Demand Planning and Senior Director of Materials Management at Honeywell. Jason holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University and an MBA from Arizona State University, and is a Six Sigma Black Belt and Honeywell-certified Lean Master.

Jessica Smaagaard leads Gradian's people strategy as Chief Human Resources Officer, overseeing how the company recruits, develops, and retains talent while keeping workforce planning aligned to the business's growth goals. She also serves as a strategic advisor to the CEO and executive team, connecting HR initiatives to outcomes like growth, engagement, and risk management. With more than 25 years of experience in strategic HR leadership, her focus is building a culture resilient enough to scale quickly without losing what makes it work, investing early in engagement, communication, and leadership development.

Before joining Gradian, Jessica held HR leadership roles at Target, Amazon, Pentair, and Hawkins, each centered on scaling organizations through significant change. Jessica holds a B.S. in Psychology and Criminal Justice from Bemidji State University, a Master's in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University, and an MBA from St. Cloud State University. She thrives in fast-building, fast-changing environments and believes teams with genuinely diverse backgrounds solve harder problems better.

Jerry Tyberghein serves as Strategic Advisor at Gradian, providing strategic guidance focused on the Air-Cooling business, shaping business growth, product direction, market opportunity, and key customer relationships. He brings 15 years of experience in thermal management, sales, strategy, and engineering across commercial, industrial, and data center markets.

Jerry previously served as President and Co-Founder of MAS HVAC, where he helped scale the company past $50 million in revenue, expanded its presence into the data center industry, and built both a strong leadership team and an industry-leading culture. He played a key role in positioning MAS HVAC for its acquisition and subsequent integration into Gradian. Throughout his career, Jerry has delivered thermal innovation across key industries, spanning data centers, semiconductors, hospitals, casinos, labs, and K-12 and higher education facilities. Jerry holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Florida State University and is a licensed Professional Engineer.

Scott Stanfield leads Gradian's sales organization and commercial strategy as VP, Sales, with responsibility for revenue growth, key customer relationships, market expansion, and aligning capacity with customer demand. He works closely with engineering, operations, and executive leadership to shape product strategy in support of the company's long-term growth. He brings 15 years of experience in sales leadership, commercial strategy, and business development, with particular depth in strategic account management and go-to-market execution. 

Prior to joining Gradian, Scott served as Global Head of Data Center Sales & Marketing at Condair, where he helped lead a rebrand, a merger, and an ERP integration, launched a key account management function, and brought a new data center product offering to market by shifting the go-to-market model from OEM to end user. Scott holds a B.S. in Finance

Sam Prudhomme leads Gradian's Integrated Solutions Group as VP, Prefabricated Solutions, building a repeatable solutions competency that pairs with Gradian's product portfolio. His team designs, builds, and integrates solutions that tie multiple products together through factory integration and modular construction, meeting a market that increasingly wants a partner who can deliver more than a single product. He brings 20 years of experience in data center infrastructure, operations, commercial scale, growth strategy, and M&A. 

Prior to Gradian, Sam held commercial leadership roles including Vice President of Commercial Operations & Strategy at Forgent, Chief Commercial Officer at both States Manufacturing and Accelevation, President of Instor Solutions, and Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Subzero Engineering. During his tenure, Sam has scaled all previous companies by more than 100%. He has launched multiple major product platforms as well as being the driving force in business acquisitions along the way. Sam holds a degree in Construction Management.