Leadership

Tony Roybal joined Abracon in 2021 as COO and was named president and CEO in July of 2022. Mr. Roybal is a long-term electronic components industry executive with broad leadership experience in all aspects of the business and the various channels to market. Throughout his career, Mr. Roybal has continuously taken on greater responsibilities while delivering profitable results and market outperformance. Prior to Abracon, Mr. Roybal was the president of Avnet Americas where he drove a complete financial turnaround of that business. Prior to Avnet, Tony was in various regional & global leadership positions at Motorola Semiconductor and ONSEMI for 24 years. He is a highly ethical, strong leader with great vision as well as being a dedicated mentor – not only within his own organizations, but to many in the industry. Mr. Roybal builds disciplined, high performing, highly motivated and energized teams that deliver market-outperforming results.

Education & Board Activity

• BSEE, California State University, Northridge
• Harvard Business School Alumni, General Management Program
• Boards (Current): Abracon, Grand Canyon University President’s CSET advisory board
• Boards (Previous): ECIA & EDS (Electronic Industry Associations)

Grace began her career with Ernst and Young, LLP in Chicago, IL and has held leadership roles in finance and operations across the consumer products, retail, and diversified industrials sectors, including the Walgreen Co., IDEX Corporation, Intuit, and the Wm. Wrigley Jr Company.

Most recently, Grace served as the Chief Financial Officer of Direct Commerce Group, a third- party reseller and direct to consumer fulfillment service provider. Prior to this, she was the Chief Financial Officer at Rand McNally, a leader in the telematics and consumer electronics industry.

Grace obtained her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She is a Certified Public Accountant in Illinois and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In her spare time, Grace enjoys traveling and spending time with her family. Currently, she resides in Chicago with her 12 year old daughter, Naomi and 10 year old son Nicholas.

Brian Holt is a growth-driven leader with a strong business acumen and a track record of motivating teams and achieving impressive revenue growth in the electronics component industry. Brian was most recently Director of Sales at Microchip Technology, where he successfully led a team of Strategic Global Account Managers, utilizing strategies to influence profitable growth at Microchip’s major clients for over 9 years. He was also the business owner for a customized Salesforce implementation, guiding their global sales team to Microchip’s client engagement process.

Brian started his career in the electronic components industry over 30 years ago and has held various engineering, sales and leadership roles with Motorola Semiconductor, National Semiconductor / Texas Instruments and Avnet Electronics.

Brian holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree from Arizona State University in Computer Systems Engineering.

Syed Raza’s primary areas of interest include developing technology-centric product strategies and providing in-depth timing solutions. He has a comprehensive understanding of product mix, capability and applications. Syed’s career spans more than 28 years, focused on product design, development, management and technical sales.

His career at Abracon began in April 2007. He served three distinct roles as Regional Sales Manager - Midwest, Director of NPI and Lead Technical resource for the balance of the sales team. He was promoted to VP of Engineering in 2015 and has since served an instrumental role in leading Abracon’s strategic technological direction and enhancing Abracon’s market recognition as a solution provider.

Syed began his career at Motorola’s components division, where he learned from the brightest design engineers focused on timing solutions as part of the product development team. He later joined Netcom, Inc. as the principal engineer focused on developing a new business unit that brought high-end timing and synchronization solutions to market for commercial & military avionics and battlefield communication hardware. His work also included designing and managing complex RF assemblies for MRI systems, Ultrasound machines, cellular base stations and mmwave Radio networks. He worked his way up to Sr. VP of Sales & Engineering during his 8-year tenure at Netcom, Inc., and was instrumental in building and managing an engineering team of [22] engineers and sales personal.

Syed has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from Northern Illinois University (NIU).

He is an IEEE member and was awarded U.S. patent # 5,760,656. He was received multiple invention/discovery awards during his tenure at Motorola and brought to market, highly integrated products while at Netcom for Military end-applications.

Richard comes to Abracon with a strong track record of success, a determination to win, and a commitment to high-performance teams and operational excellence. Richard received his bachelor’s degree in Finance from Arizona State University and his MBA from the University of Phoenix.

Richard most recently held the role of vice president of Operations and Supply Chain at Avnet. While at Avnet Richard was responsible for Avnet’s material management, supply chain solutions, and business optimization efforts aligning with sales, finance, and IT to drive growth and improved profits. With 25+ years of experience in the electronic components industry, Richard has held leadership roles in supply chain, pricing management, operations, sales, and business development.

On a personal note, Richard and his wife, Stephanie have been married for 27 years and have three daughters. In addition to golf and fitness, he can often be found spending time outdoors with friends and family.

Kevin Lemon is the Vice President of Product and Marketing at Abracon. He is an accomplished leader with extensive expertise in both electrical and mechanical engineering. With a career spanning over 25 years, he has made significant contributions across various industries, including automotive, pharmaceuticals, and consumer and industrial electronics. His unique ability to integrate principles from many industries drives innovation and efficiency.

Kevin joined Abracon in September 2020 as the Regional Technical Manager for EMEA and was later promoted to a global role as Director of Product Management. Leading a team of Product Line Managers and managing the product lifecycle from from strategic planning of new product introductions to post-launch analysis. His deep understanding of market trends and customer needs, combined with his technical proficiency, enables him to create and execute product strategies that deliver significant business value.

He has a commitment to excellence and passion for innovation and collaboration that have made him a well-respected leader in the industry.

Residing in the UK, Kevin lives with his wife and daughter. In his spare time, he cares for their two horses and occasionally writes and plays music.