JAMES A. GRAF
Independent Director
Mr. Graf has sponsored or served as a director on five SPACs, raising over $1.5 billion in aggregate from the IPO financings. Mr. Graf was the chief executive officer of Graf Industrial Corp. from its inception in June 2018 until it completed its business combination with Velodyne Lidar, Inc. in September 2020; and was a member of Graf Industrial’s board of directors from June 2018 to October 2019. Mr. Graf has served as a director of Velodyne Lidar since September 2020. Mr. Graf was a director of Platinum Eagle Acquisition Corp., from January 2018 to March 2019, when it completed its business combination with Target Hospitality, Inc. Mr. Graf served as the vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer of Double Eagle Acquisition Corp. from its inception in June 2015 through its business combination with Williams Scotsman, Inc. in November 2017. He served as vice president, chief financial officer, treasurer and secretary of Silver Eagle Acquisition Corp. from its inception in April 2013 through Silver Eagle’s business combination with Videocon d2h Ltd., and he served as vice president, chief financial officer, treasurer and secretary of Global Eagle Acquisition Corp. from its inception in February 2011 to its business combination with Row 44, Inc. and Advanced Inflight Alliance AG in January 2013. He was vice chairman of Global Entertainment AG, the German entity holding Global Eagle’s equity in AIA from 2013 to 2014 and special advisor to Global Eagle in 2013. He served as a special advisor to Videocon d2h from 2015 to 2016.
From 2008 to 2011 Mr. Graf served as a managing director of TC Capital Ltd., an investment bank, in Singapore. From 2007 to 2008, Mr. Graf was engaged as a consultant to provide financial advisory services to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. In 2001, Mr. Graf founded and became chief executive officer of Praedea, an enterprise software company. Subsequent to a sale of Pradea’s assets in 2006, it has been renamed PSIC, and currently serves as an investment holding company for Mr. Graf, who continues to be chief executive officer of PSIC. Prior to founding Praedea, Mr. Graf held various investment banking roles with Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, Smith Barney, and Morgan Stanley across both US and Asia.