Operational Background Overview

 

As Vice President of Operations for Plastech, I was directly responsible for 14 facilities throughout the Midwest with over 2,000 employees and over $300 million in P&L:  Nine in Michigan - Romulus 1, Frenchtown 1 and Frenchtown 2, Talon Court, Grandville, Clarkston, Hartland, Croswell, and Port Huron; Three in Ohio - Bryan, Wauseon, and Napoleon; One in Indiana - Kendallville; and One in Illinois - Chicago. During my tenure at this position, I was responsible for:

• Growing the Romulus 1 and Chicago Plant from less than 50 employees to over 500 and 300 employees respectively. Launching the hard trim programs for the Ford F150, Freestyle and 500 as well as the Mazda 6, Ford Ranger, Dodge Ram, Town and Country Minivan, and Lexus 330 amongst others. Both plants achieved Ford Q1 status and grew from unprofitable to over 30% operating margins.

• Building the Frenchtown 2 facility from a greenfield site to over 300,000 sq. ft. and launched the Jeep Wrangler and Liberty programs as well as the Town and Country center console assembly.

• Closing the unprofitable Napoleon facility and consolidated the business into other facilities better located for JIT sequencing.

• Managing the Launches and Transfers department in 2007 for all 34 Plastech facilities including the launch of exterior programs for GM at the Romulus 2 and Lansing plants.These included the Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave, and GMC Acadia as well as over 500 tool transfers. Trained with Toyota at NUMMI.All programs and transfers launched on time and overall customer quality improved.

• While at Plastech, I also participated in the due diligence, investor road show, and day one integration team for the $140 million LDM acquisition. I was also involved in performing valuation investigations for several additional acquisition opportunities including the Visteon Chassis division and the Ford Milan Fuel Tank operation.

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As President of The Power Alternative Inc., I designed, installed, and operated a 66 million liter per year capacity biodiesel plant (the largest in Michigan). As CFO, I was able to get bond financing at LIBOR +1% for the multi-million dollar capitalization of the start-up corporation.  The company, currently, has no external debt. Accomplishments while at TPA include:

• The Greenfield site plant was RFS2 (engineering) certified and in production in less than 6 months from the start of equipment installation. Developed industry leading processes for chemical separations.

• TPA received its own government research grant to expand alternative energy feedstock from farming. Additionally, we performed research studies with Michigan State University and the University of Detroit-Mercy. Developed patented algae photo-bioreactor.

• Consulted with the Alberta Ministers of Energy, (H. Ken Hughes and Ted Morton - responsible for over $153 billion in oil field investments in 2012 alone) and Agriculture, regarding alternative energy policy. Additionally, consulted for the Alberta Minister of Finance at the 2011 Building Information Modeling (BIM) Conference regarding implementing automotive engineering practices for the construction industry.

• Presented at numerous regional agricultural conferences. Interviewed for television (CTV), radio (Radio-Canada francophone), and print (Crain's, Edmonton Journal, Detroit News, Macomb Daily, South Peace News, etc.) on alternative energy projects and policy.