Mark Bye, MIT ’78 is an experienced international business leader with a deep track record of success spanning the industrials, energy, and chemicals sectors. Having lived and worked in six countries, he has led public and private equity owned enterprises to higher levels of growth and profitability.
Mr. Bye currently serves as an Executive Advisor to Morgan Stanley, having previously served for 12 years as a Managing Director and Partner in their Private Equity and Energy Capital Funds. He is also active, through his company the Bye Group LLC, in numerous technology driven start-ups. He joined Morgan Stanley Private Equity in 2008 assuming leadership responsibilities for the European region and globally for industrials, basic materials, and energy sectors. This role encompasses a wide range of activities including fund raising, deal sourcing and evaluation, transaction structuring and negotiation, strategic and business planning, executive selection, and monetization of investments. He served as a member of the Funds’ Investment and Valuation Committees and continues to chair multiple portfolio company boards.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Bye was the CEO of DyStar, GmbH, a private equity owned Frankfurt based specialty chemicals company providing dyes, pigments, and services to the textile, paper and plastics industries.
Before DyStar, Mr. Bye spent more than 20 years at Air Products and Chemicals (NYSE: APD) where he held a number of senior positions including chief executive of numerous global chemicals, energy, and equipment businesses, President of Air Products Asia, and ultimately, Group Executive of the $7B global Gases & Equipment Group. Responsibilities included 12,000 staff, $1B in operating income, and $1B of annual capital expenditures. Prior to Air Products, he held management positions at Union Carbide Corporation and Energy Investments, a Boston based energy-consulting firm.
In addition to his involvement in Fund portfolio companies, Mr. Bye serves on the Board of Directors of Schweitzer-Mauduit International (NYSE: SWM), Carus Corporation, Alset NV, LifeAire Systems LLC, and is also an advisor to several early-stage companies. Mr. Bye holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a graduate of INSEAD’s Advanced Management Program. He is active in the American Institute if Chemical Engineers, MIT’s Energy Initiative and resides in South Carolina with his wife and three children.
Mark served the Massachusetts Gamma Chapter as President while a student at MIT.