# Thomas Churbuck Built a Turbine-Parts Company, Sold It Twice, and Became an Operating Partner He co-founded a turbine-parts startup in 1998, sold it to Calpine for about 43 million dollars, and its assets later fetched 242 million from Alstom. A founder's path to a PE seat. Author: J.A. Watte Published: July 7, 2026 Source: https://jwatte.com/blog/thomas-churbuck-power-systems-manufacturing/ --- This is one profile in a set on the operators that AE Industrial Partners hires as its operating partners, the people a private equity firm pays to guide the companies it owns. The pattern behind who gets the seat is laid out in [Built to Be Bought](/blog/built-to-be-bought/). Thomas Churbuck earned his the same way Pam Braden earned hers. He built a company and sold it. ## The turbine-parts company he built Churbuck co-founded Power Systems Manufacturing, known as PSM, in 1998 and ran it as President and CEO. He grew it from a startup into a roughly 120-person engineering business that made low-emissions combustion systems and advanced aftermarket components for the industrial gas turbines that GE and Siemens sell into power plants, according to his [AE Industrial bio](https://www.aeroequity.com/team-member/thomas-k-churbuck/). The whole company was aimed at a single, specific market: the parts and upgrades that keep large power-generation turbines running. ## Sold once, and then the value kept climbing PSM sold to the power producer Calpine in December 2000 for about 43 million dollars, structured as 10.7 million in Calpine stock and 32.3 million in cash, per [Power Engineering](https://www.power-eng.com/gas/calpine-acquires-power-systems-mfg/). The business he built did not stop appreciating after he sold it. When Calpine later restructured, it sold substantially all of PSM's assets to Alstom for 242 million dollars in 2007, a sale approved in Calpine's bankruptcy, per [Reliable Plant](https://www.reliableplant.com/Read/5184/calpine-sells-power-systems-manufacturing-for-$242m). The same company that changed hands for roughly 43 million at the turn of the century was worth 242 million seven years on. ## The résumé before the turbine company Churbuck was already an operator and a founder before PSM. Earlier he founded Tropic Aviation, a jet-engine parts trading business, and from 1992 to 1996 he was President of HydroServ Group, an underwater construction services supplier to the international hydroelectric market, according to a [Sequa Corporation board announcement](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sequa-corporation-names-thomas-k-churbuck-to-board-of-directors-117400603.html). Before any of that, he served in U.S. Army Special Forces, the Green Berets, from 1981 to 1992, per the same source and his AE Industrial bio. ## The door he walked through Churbuck is the founder-built-and-sold profile on the bench, the same door Braden used. He has been with AE Industrial since 2007, focused on sourcing and the strategic positioning of new investments, and he currently sits on the board of AE Industrial portfolio company G.S. Precision, having previously served on the boards of Gryphon Technologies before its 2021 sale to ManTech, BHI Energy before its 2022 sale to Westinghouse, and Kellstrom Aerospace before its 2024 sale to VSE, per his [AE Industrial bio](https://www.aeroequity.com/team-member/thomas-k-churbuck/). A person who has founded a company and steered it to a sale knows the one chair a private equity firm most needs represented: the seller's. ## Related reading - [Built to Be Bought](/blog/built-to-be-bought/): the full playbook of building a company to be bought and keeping the equity after. - [Wayne Garrett, the co-founder who kept the books](/blog/wayne-garrett-psm-cfo/): his partner at the very same turbine company. - [Les Daniels, the twenty-year co-investor](/blog/les-daniels-cai-turbocombustor/): the financier on the same bench. - [Peter Cannito, who tripled Polaris Alpha and now runs Redwire](/blog/peter-cannito-polaris-alpha-redwire/): the operator's version of the same story. ## Fact-check notes and sources - **Operating Partner at AE Industrial since 2007; co-founder, President and CEO of PSM; roughly 120 employees; board seats at G.S. Precision, and formerly Gryphon, BHI Energy, and Kellstrom Aerospace:** [his AE Industrial bio](https://www.aeroequity.com/team-member/thomas-k-churbuck/). - **PSM sold to Calpine in December 2000 for about 43 million dollars (10.7 million stock plus 32.3 million cash):** [Power Engineering](https://www.power-eng.com/gas/calpine-acquires-power-systems-mfg/). - **Calpine's sale of PSM's assets to Alstom for 242 million dollars in 2007:** [Reliable Plant](https://www.reliableplant.com/Read/5184/calpine-sells-power-systems-manufacturing-for-$242m). One secondary source carried a date field that parsed as 2002; 2007 is the higher-confidence year and the one Alstom and Calpine records support. - **Tropic Aviation, HydroServ Group (1992 to 1996), and U.S. Army Special Forces service (1981 to 1992):** the [Sequa Corporation board announcement](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sequa-corporation-names-thomas-k-churbuck-to-board-of-directors-117400603.html). Calpine's original 2000 purchase price of PSM is disclosed above; his exact Special Forces rank at separation is not disclosed in the sources found. *This post is informational and journalistic, describing publicly reported people, companies, and transactions. It is not investment, tax, legal, or M&A advice. All parties are discussed from public records and their own published statements as nominative fair use, with no affiliation implied and nothing endorsed by them.* --- Canonical HTML: https://jwatte.com/blog/thomas-churbuck-power-systems-manufacturing/ RSS: https://jwatte.com/feed.xml JSON Feed: https://jwatte.com/feed.json Hero image: https://jwatte.com/images/thomas-churbuck-power-systems-manufacturing.webp