Executive Vice President, Child Safety Restraint Division

Dorel Juvenile Group, $460M division of the Dorel Corporation, 2009 to Present

Recruited to report to the President and CEO of Dorel Juvenile Group (DJG). Responsible for General Management and oversight of this $175MM division of DJG. Built an organization of more than 75 highly skilled workers and experts to create industry-leading international sales entity in the US/Canada and China with matrix leadership of sales and manufacturing process. Since taking the reigns in 2009, my strategic planning changes resulted in record-breaking new product/ sales growth within a two year period, handily beating the growth in all other DJG divisions.

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Vice President & Corporate Officer, Research/Design/Development Engineering and Quality

Britax Childcare Inc., $100M division of the Britax Group, 2006 to 2009

Recruited to report to the President, to manage a team of 35 and a $9M budget to drive industry leading innovation of child passenger safety products to serve the North American markets for the corporation. Created and implemented a world class research/design/engineering capability to stimulate $30M sales growth (a 30% increase) in the first year at Britax. Cleaned up nine product recalls in less than a year to meet regulatory standards while implementing new levels of increased performance ensuring that brand image and market performance as the industry leader in child safety products was reestablished for North America.

Executive Director, Portfolio Management

Sea Ray Division, $1.1B division of Brunswick Corp., 2004 to 2006

Reporting to President, led team of 20 and $5M budget to transform organization and product portfolio. Led Sea Ray team that won J.D. Power Highest Customer Satisfaction Award three years in a row. Sea Ray designed products solely on input from the sales force and dealer network. Recognized need for consumer perspective. Identified future product concepts through disciplined ethnographic research. Built a portfolio strategy that differentiated pricing, features and service to create competitive advantage. Redesigned product development and engineering to speed product innovations in the market.

Strategic Program Director Advanced Product Development, HON Industries

Division of HNI, Inc. 2002 to 2004

Recruited to lead R&D and commercialization of innovative products and services for $2.1B leader in mass-market office furniture channel. Reporting to the CTO, drove new product designs through lean product development team of 20. Led organizational development initiative to drive integration of lean development and lean manufacturing teams. Generated $30M in second-year revenues for HON. Recruited to establish HON as innovator in product design. Commissioned market research. Built and implemented plan for advanced R&D initiative. Commercialized four products from 65+ concepts.

Vice President, Engineering

Herman Miller Inc., $2B manufacturing and design leader for office furniture, Meridian Division, 1999 to 2002

With P&L responsibility for all operations, reported to the Division President of $700M unit. Managed team of 100+ and budget of $6M. Launched 15+ products and significant innovations. Reestablished Herman Miller as the industry leader in design innovations. Reengineered global product development to save Herman Miller $12M annually. Historically each division designed, engineered and developed products. Charged to develop centralized resource. Built collaborative, team based process. Accelerated development with concurrent research, design and engineering methods. Improved integration with manufacturing. Saved $12M in cost of goods, not counting elimination of redundancies.

Director, Custom Product Development & Engineering

Herman Miller Inc., $2B manufacturing and design leader for office furniture, Tailored Product Solutions, 1996 to 1999

Promoted to General Manager for global product research and development. With team of seven and $2M budget directed 350+ customer engagements. Developed and commercialized 45+ new product concepts that generated 28% of Herman Miller division sales. Promoted to drive global synergies. Led research initiative. Established product development capacity. Led global product planning, industrial design and new product development. Launched 15+ products and significant innovations.

EARLIER CAREER

Director HMI Europe, Research/Design and Program Manager, New Product Design and Development, Herman Miller Inc.

Project Manager, Manufacturing/Industrial Engineering. Shaw/Walker Company.

Systems Engineer, Teledyne Brown Engineering.

Research Technician, Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

EDUCATION

Masters in Business Administration, Grand Valley State University.

Bachelors of Science, Mechanical Engineering Technology, Purdue University.

Associate of Science, Engineering Technology, Purdue University.