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About Me
My Experience
After graduating from Northwestern University as a Chemical Engineer, I was excited to join the food industry with General Foods in Chicago as a Project Engineer. I then moved to Kraft General Foods in Champaign, IL as a Manufacturing Process Engineer before joining Kraft General Foods Operations in Northbrook, IL as a Sr. Corporate Project Engineer. I then had the opportunity to be a Plant Engineering and Maintenance Manager at Kraft's Polly-O Dairy Italian cheese plant in Upstate NY. From there I changed industries and joined PepsiCo Restaurant's Pizza Hut Corporate Engineering team in Wichita, KS just before PepsiCo relocated Pizza Hut to Dallas, TX.
While in Dallas, I worked with Pizza Hut and the other YUM! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, A&W, Long John Silver’s) in engineering roles of increasing responsibility. My most interesting and rewarding role was working with the many regional R&D/Engineering teams all over the world with Yum! Restaurants International. I then moved to Bob Evans Farms where I spent five years as Senior Director of Engineering and Corporate Sustainability for their 600 restaurants and then three years as Senior Director of Plant Engineering for four manufacturing facilities. Next, I joined Mondelez International as Site Engineering Manager at their only US Gum Manufacturing plant in Rockford, IL for five years. I recently joined Coca-Cola as Director of Engineering for North American Syrup Plants leading a team of engineers in developing and implementing technical solutions for products, packaging, processing, and facility infrastructure.
Over my long career in the chain restaurant and food and beverage manufacturing industries I've been fortunate to have had the opportunity to lead many diverse teams in delivering exceptional bottom line results.
My Skillset
• Developing and implementing strategic capital asset plans to drive business growth through continuous improvement in capacities, margins, outputs, and operating efficiencies.
• Leading cross-functional teams in creating and executing short-term tactical plans as part of a long-term strategy.
• Building and leading engineering, maintenance, and facility management teams that deliver continuous improvement.
• Utilizing the DEDVIM stage gate process (Define, Explore, Develop, Evaluate, Validate, Implement, and Measure) to deliver innovative solutions.
• Leveraging broad industry knowledge and networks with the experience and skills of internal teams and business partners to deliver results that exceed expectations.
• Performing thorough situational analyses to rapidly synthesize options, costs, returns, business impacts, and contingencies for robust action plans.
• Directing major capital projects and project management teams: Plant expansions; Processing, packaging, and material handling system automation; Manufacturing, restaurant food service, and building mechanical equipment design, customization, upgrades, retrofits, and replacements.
My Passions
Outside of work, I spend time enjoying adventures with my family, walking our dogs, swimming, watching sports and movies, and attending all kinds of live performance events.