Bio

"If you seek tranquility, do less, better." - Marcus Aurelius

I retired in early 2023 and now enjoy reading, pickleball, cooking, beach walks, traveling, and exploring a wide range of topics including lean methodologies, AI, and consciousness research. My wife and I live in Morro Bay, California, and have visited over 70 countries.

"Go see, ask why, show respect." - Fujio Cho, former chairman of Toyota.

I remain active as a partner and investor at Central Coast Ventures, where I mentor new startup founders in collaboration with CalPoly's SLO Hothouse startup incubator. I serve on a few boards and occasionally guest lecture at CalPoly and Rensselaer on lean, leadership, and supply chain topics, though I prefer meaningful one-on-one discussions.

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few." - Shunryu Suzuki

For over thirty years I held executive engineering and operations leadership roles primarily in medical devices, with additional experience in telecom, automotive lighting, and food processing. My primary focus was on applying lean concepts to manufacturing and leadership. I co-founded Gemba Academy in 2009, which became the largest provider of online lean and six sigma training to over 2,000 organizations worldwide before its acquisition by Forum Media Group in 2022.

Prior roles included President of Specialty Silicone Fabricators, a multi-site manufacturer of silicone components primarily for medical devices, acquired by Trelleborg AB. Before that I was Director of Operations at Newport Corporation's photonics division, where our team rapidly scaled output of laser diode test equipment from $500k to $5M per month in nine months. I spent a decade at Abbott Laboratories in various operations and engineering positions manufacturing drug infusion pumps and advanced sensor catheters. I began my professional career at Sylvania where I earned four patents for automotive lighting products.

I hold a BS in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with additional studies at Stanford and the University of Michigan. For additional details about my background and experience, please visit my LinkedIn profile.