Current
I currently spend most of my time with Gemba Academy, a company I co-founded in 2009 that provides over 1,500 online lean and six sigma training videos to over 2,000 organizations worldwide.
I enjoy working with fellow entrepreneurs. This includes being an investor at SLO Seed Ventures, a local angel investment group, and working with a local startup incubator, the SLO Hothouse. I am a board member of the SLO Economic Vitality Corporation, and also a board member of a handful of local small companies where I try to infuse a lean and agile culture.
To further give back, I guest lecture each semester at both CalPoly and my alma mater, Rensselaer, usually on lean, leadership, and supply chain topics. I continue to blog and slowly work on my second book, The Simple Leader. I speak at a few events each year, generally the AME Conference, Lean Kanban Conference, and Lean Leadership Summit.
My wife and I live in Morro Bay, California, a small fishing village at the southern end of the incredible Big Sur coastline, adjacent to the 220 wineries of Paso Robles. We have visited over 65 countries around the world, aiming for two or three new ones each year. I’m a yoga and crossfit enthusiast, but also love great food and wine, so a good balance. You will often find me at my favorite restaurant, The Galley in Morro Bay.
Past
For the last thirty years I have been in a variety of executive leadership roles, primarily in the medical device industry, with prior exposure to the telecom equipment, consumer lighting, and food processing industries. My background is in engineering and operations with a focus on lean manufacturing and lean leadership.
I served on the board of directors of The Association for Manufacturing Excellence for over ten years and was a founding member of the SLO Specialized Manufacturing Alliance, an advocacy group affiliated with the SLO Economic Vitality Corporation.
My industry experience includes being President of Specialty Silicone Fabricators, a multi-site contract manufacturer of precision silicone components for the medical device industry. Over an eight year period I led the lean transformation of the company, created focus by implementing a strategic planning and execution process, overhauled and improved the sales and marketing function, and expanded technological capabilities through a combination of organic and joint venture development.
Prior to Specialty Silicone Fabricators, I co-founded Agilonics LLC, a niche electronics contract manufacturing company, where I learned that even a great business model still requires talented sales people. I was Director of Operations for the photonics equipment operations of Newport Corporation where I took the hyper growth operation from $500k to $5M a month in output in under nine months, with the same people and space, using lean methods.
I spent a decade in various positions at Abbott Laboratories, including Operations Manager for its largest injection molding operations in Salt Lake City, Business Unit Manager for the infusion pump operations in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Advanced Engineering Manager for the advanced sensor catheter operations also in the Bay Area. Prior to Abbott I held R&D and manufacturing engineering positions with Osram Sylvania’s automotive and specialty lighting operations in Boston, Kentucky, and Puerto Rico. While their I was granted four patents for designs still in use today.
I received a BS in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where I cut my teeth on manufacturing with a co-op experience at Nestle. I spent most of my youth in Texas and seven years in Lima, Peru.