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Writer's pictureMichael Whelan

Exceptional APAC / China Senior Executive



PALIO PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

CAREER SUMMARY

Exceptional senior executive with broad-based Asia, Europe and US general management experience in the areas of manufacturing and operations, sales, supply chain, finance, engineering, R&D, quality, logistics, strategic planning, acquisitions, and business development. Turn around successes.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE


US$2 Bn global industrial company President APAC


Company was acquired by competitor and re-organized. Management responsibilities included establishment of a new business strategy to turn the US$ 135 Mn APAC business around: sales, operations, engineering, finance, HR, supply chain, and engineering functions

Key accomplishments include the following:

  • Sales increased 19% y-o-y

  • EBITDA trebled: 6 to 18%

  • Consolidated 3 manufacturing operation into one, saving US$ 1.5 mn annually

  • Negotiated 3-yr free-of-lease period and favorable tax terms for new manufacturing site

  • US$ 6 mn divestiture of unprofitable business

  • Localized production of two product lines, and developed product lines suited to the local market

  • Established new strategy: local supply chain, locally-optimized products, and solution selling, especially relevant today

$5 Bn renewables provider – components and services

President APAC


Business turnaround mandate for US$1 Bn business. Focused and effective strategy established and executed successfully

Key accomplishments include the following:

  • Grew Sales: €150 to 400 Mn

  • Grew EBITA: 20% to 30%

  • Reduced Costs (material): 15%

  • Reduced Costs (waste): 10%

  • Established in-region R&D capability

  • Established M&A strategy to accelerate non-organic growth, resulting in successful sale of company to a global MNC


Vice President / General Manager, Service and Logistics

Management responsibilities included re-organizing and streamlining this €50 Mn business, addressing process and system deficiencies, driving productivity improvement and focusing sales efforts to achieve a step change in business performance.

Key results include the following:

  • Turned loss-making business profitable with sales 50% ahead of plan while reducing cost base by >30%

  • Improved efficiency and labor utilization by 10% and 15% respectively while reducing Lost Time Accidents by 75% and achieving customer satisfaction of >95%.

  • Established rigorous reviews and metrics to measure and drive continuous improvement.

  • Established a global customer claims organization and supporting process to manage warranty costs while ensuring consistent and rapid response to customer claims.

Vice President, Corporate Strategy, R&D, and Quality


Hired strong talent into leadership positions from both internal and external sources. Reorganized key functions establishing rigorous processes and performance reviews driving efficiency and effectiveness improvement.


Key results include:

  • Led the development of a corporate strategy including key elements of industrialization, sales growth and M&A

  • Reorganized R&D to strengthen core competencies and drive rigor in project execution

  • Acquired and used 3D printing technology to optimize airfoil aerodynamics and limited production of aero devices accelerating time to market and competitive differentiation for blade performance

  • Established a strategy organization and processes including business and marketing intelligence

  • Established an end-to-end business process approach to quality including R&D, Operations, Service and Customer

  • Met or exceeded key performance indicators including reducing cost of quality by 50%, reducing warranty exposure by 50%, delivering 100% product development contracts on time and at or below cost

  • Regularly spoke in public industry forums, primarily in Europe

  • Established and implemented a communication plan including bi-monthly town halls, monthly business reviews, skip-level meetings and regular reviews with key customers


$5 Bn factory automation, control and information systems company

Vice President, Continuous Improvement


Reported to the CEO. Led Quality, Product Safety, Lean Six Sigma, Idea-to-Offer process, and Customer Experience functions. Established rigor and rhythm of monthly quality and productivity reviews for each business unit and plant. Corporate Executive for key global customers. Supervised staff of more than 400 with a budget of greater than $40 million

· Improved quality from 30-50% on key products through the establishment of operational war rooms to analyze and address quality issues and performance trends in each business unit and plant

  • Attained a $60M annual run-rate cost productivity savings during second year of Lean Six Sigma Program deployment

  • Established strategy and annual operating plans including break-through initiatives in production excellence (Company Production System), product development (Common Product Development Process), reliability, software quality, logistics, product safety and customer loyalty

  • Established a communication plan including quarterly town halls, monthly business and plant reviews, skip-level meetings and regular reviews with key customers and distributors


$4 Bn division of a global MNC

Vice President, Quality

Reported to the CEO of Transportation Systems. Managed a team of 500 Quality professionals in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Provided leadership and strategic direction for achieving customer satisfaction and minimizing warranty cost through improvements in reliability, plant and supplier quality and contract management

  • Improved Quality measure from greater than 500 PPM to less than 50 PPM

  • Improved product reliability by 50% through structured evaluation of field performance, design analyses and robustness testing leading to product changes using more robust components and greater design margins.

  • Leadership team member responsibility for developing and deploying the Company Operating System. Typical results were 50% improvement in Quality, 10 points improvement in delivery, 35% reduction in cost and 50% improvement in safety.

  • Established Quality and Reliability improvement strategy. Worked with leadership team to deploy into Business Strategy and Annual Operating Plans. Regularly assessed and guided progress through detailed on-site reviews.


$2 Bn telecommunications products and services company

Vice President, Continuous Improvement


Reported to the Chief Operating Officer and managed a team of 400. During a two-year period, progressed from Quality Director of a $500 million division to the Global Head of Quality. During the last three years, was a key member of the senior leadership team responsible for turning-around a situation of near bankruptcy to being re-listed and profitable

  • Reduced customer product return rates from >5% to <1%

  • Reduced Cost of Poor Quality by greater than £20M

  • Improved customer satisfaction metric by 20%

  • Reduced supplier defect rate from greater than 60,000 DPPM to less than 5,000 DPPM for EMS suppliers and from 5,000 to fewer than 250 for critical commodity suppliers. This was achieved by establishing a rigorous supplier selection, management and development process

  • Turned-around challenging customer situations through committing to and implementing comprehensive quality improvement plans

  • Established Phase-gate acceptance criteria to ensure integrity in product development process

$1 Bn semiconductor electronics company

Quality Director


$6 Bn transportation products and services company

Reliability Engineering Manager/Quality Director


EDUCATION

MBA, BSEE

CERTIFICATIONS & AFFILIATIONS

  • Six Sigma Black Belt

  • Certified Quality Auditor

  • Quality Manager

  • TQM Instructor

  • Lean ShingiJutsu

The Palio Group, Suite 413 Hua Teng International Office Building, No.3 Da Jiao Ting Zhong Jie, Chaoyang Qu, Beijing, China 100022, +86.139.1112.5683


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