Leigh Fibers, Wellford, SC
A privately held textile trading, recycling and repurposing company
President and CEO
P&L Responsibility for the Leigh Family of companies including Leigh Fibers and ICE Recycling
- Less than a two year turn-around of company profitability
- Greater than 2X improvement in Enterprise Valuation
- Integrated ICE Recycling Acquisition which was a strategic bolt on for sourcing as well as market diversification with 3X growth in business over 4 years
- Improved sales processes for greater customer intimacy with joint product development efforts leading to 2X growth at largest customer. Actively pursued new market opportunities beyond post industrial recycling into elements of the “Circular Economy” model
- Identified key leaders for development and mentoring to enable smooth succession.
- Dramatic improvement in Safety culture with a greater than 5X improvement in TRIR.
ZEEP, Austin, TX
Developer of chemical grade methanol plants with a lean, capital efficient development approach.
Technology Advisory Board Member
- Provide guidance on standardization methodology for a proposed program leveraging experience from DuPont in Global Footprint standardization
- Program has been on hold pending market viability.
HOLLINGSWORTH AND VOSE, East Walpole, MA
A privately owned manufacturer of engineered nonwovens and paper products.
Vice President, Global Operations/President of H&V Fibers (2012 – 2014)
Responsible for all aspects of Global Operations including twelve manufacturing locations in the US, Mexico, United Kingdom, Germany, and China.
- Expanded the North American journey for organizational development to one involving all sites globally. Significant improvement in all operational KPI’s were realized.
- Drove safety improvement, one global quality management system with one corporate ISO registrar with a 30% savings in ISO registration costs. Year over year operating improvements in excess of $5M during first year of efforts.
Director, North American Operations (2011 – 2012)
Responsible for all aspects of North American Operations comprising seven mills in the US and Mexico.
- Led and developed organization from a “program dujour” environment to one with sustainable processes, systems, and structures aimed at achieving first quartile operational excellence performance in all measures.
- Moved safety culture to one of reacting to injuries to a proactive near miss reporting culture with an initial 10 times reduction in reportable injuries.
DEEPFLEX, Houston, TX
A venture funded company commercializing innovative composite pipe technology for subsea oil and gas exploration with production in very deep water offshore environment.
Vice President, Operations
Responsible for all aspects of the operations for start-up venture including manufacturing, QHSE and Procurement.
- Led significant improvement in performance of pilot plant including reducing TRIR of more than 20 to zero while driving sustainable cultural norms, improved quality and more than three times improvement in productivity.
- Developed overall strategy and global deployment for standardized state of the art manufacturing capacity for initial deployment in Brazil followed by South East Asia.
- Recruited and developed world class manufacturing and operations team
CHEMICAL LIME, Fort Worth, TX
Largest lime producer in the United States with revenues exceeding $500M, with quarries and manufacturing plants in 14 locations and over 40 terminal operations.
Senior Vice President, Operations
Responsible for all aspects of lime manufacturing operations for privately held, international company that included 15 direct reports - Regional and Functional Vice Presidents and Directors with responsibility for 1100 people.
- Led significant cultural change in operations organization, migrating from very reactive “beaten down” culture to being proactive.
- Initiated significant organizational development changes from personal coaching, training and recruiting the “right” resources for the task. Resulting in five year improvement plans for each location and a new level of transparency of reality to the owners.
- Led strategic operations of 14 manufacturing facilities for quarry and calcining and over 40 terminals for product distribution in the United States and Canada.
- Developed and implemented operational procedures to drive major improvement initiatives such as; safety performance, asset and basic infrastructure improvements, quality control practices, and standardization of process controls. Resulted in more predictable and stable operations, reduced annual outages and spending.
- Developed actions and implemented clean up for a significant number of legacy environmental issues that were left in limbo. Changed culture to compliance versus “getting by.”
- Implemented new management system to continue growth of internal capabilities and drive business while reducing turnover, and recruiting talent from outside industry to enhance operations and introduce cutting edge practices.
INVISTA, Wilmington, DE
Headquartered in the United States, one of the world’s largest integrated fiber and polymer businesses with global presence. (This was a set of businesses in DuPont that were sold to Koch Industries.)
Global Engineering Director
Responsible for all aspects of engineering and capital related project activities with a capital budget exceeding $400M and an additional $150M in “cost” related activities. Span of control for all engineering services for five business units and 45 global sites with eight direct reports, 45 employees and contractors ranging from 600 to 2500.
- Negotiated contract and compensation with major vendors and manufacturers. Transitioned through major contract revisions leading to benchmark best engineering service results.
- Improved capital planning and management practices including preparing individual business plans; analysis of alternatives; contractor selection; and performance monitoring, staffing and renewal of owner resources; and benchmarking performance.
- Independent Project Analysis Benchmarking (IPA) demonstrated that practices and performance were in the top tier of all companies for cost and schedule performance as benchmarked through IPA’s process.
E. I. DUPONT DE NEMOURS, INC**., Wilmington, DE
One of the world’s largest science and technology companies in various disciplines
As follows..**
**Wilmington, DE Global Operations Director-Elastane Fiber
Responsible for all aspects of global operations for 12 manufacturing sites including safety, cost, budgeting, metrics, capital, and planning. This included both our branded offering (Lycra®) and our generic offering (Elaspan®). Duties included the upgrading and integration of two newly acquired JV manufacturing facilities (one in Korea and one in Lian Yan Gang, China). Managing the generic product line (Product Manager) was also included in the scope of responsibilities. Member of the Joint Venture Board in China. Reduced operating cost through standardization of work practices with a 50% reduction in variable cost over a 5 year period and fixed cost productivity improvements of 5% per year. Managing a significant capital budget for growth leveraging our standard footprint developed earlier in career and replicating over 12 time globally.
**Wilmington, DE Global Integration Manager
Responsible for the internal merger of three DuPont businesses (Lycra, Nylon, Polyester) into one strategic business unit which became the arm that was sold as Invista
**Wilmington, DE Six Sigma Champion—Lycra®.
Responsible for deployment of Six Sigma into the Lycra® Business globally. Duties include staffing, networking with corporate team, coordinating training and learning the methodology. This included leading the change management process in all areas of the business versus the traditional applications of six sigma in manufacturing processes only. Leveraged the methodology for Top Line Growth. See “The Six Sigma Fieldbook: How DuPont Successfully Implemented the Six Sigma” by Mikel Harry and Don Linseman ....
**Wilmington, DE Product Manager—North America.
Responsible for managing the Regional Lycra® Business processes. Duties included managing product line (understanding market needs and working with R&D to insure portfolio was in line with market), supply chain management, Regional S&OP processes, customer service, competitive intelligence, finance, and credit management.
**Waynesboro, VA Project/Manufacturing Manager.
Responsible for EPC, start-up and ongoing operation for a New Technology Platform Lycra® facility. Duties included contractor selection, project team staffing, managing relationship with existing site and Union. The latter was a real challenge as the new plant required significant changes to existing working conditions. Project was delivered on time and at 50% lower capital intensity versus our previous best. This was then replicated more than 12 times globally.
**SINGAPORE/JAPAN PROJECT/CONSTRUCTION MANAGER.
Responsibility for all aspects of EPC for a $140MM Lycra® plant including engineering and construction management (resident in Singapore). Provided Owner based leadership for engineering (resident in Japan) as well as leadership for a construction team including the primary General Contractor (Japanese) and multiple sub-contractors. Delivered plant on time, under budget, and with “zero” safety incidents (typical job of this magnitude in Singapore would have had multiple fatalities). Provided start-up assistance as a member of the integrated operations team.
**Charlotte, NC Project Engineer.
Managed small projects <$20MM for the Kevlar®, Nomex® and Tyvek® businesses. Duties included managing the design contractor, construction and plant integration effort for over $80MM worth of small projects (about 30 projects).
**Luxembourg Project Engineer/Contract Liaison
Provided primary interface between owner lead construction management team and design contractor, managing all design and contract change orders. Also assisted in plant startup and led a special study team on vertical integration.
**The Netherlands Project Engineer/Contract Liaison. Resident
Owner representative in contractor office for a $150MM Tyvek® plant to be built in Luxembourg. Duties included coordination of front-ending loading, design reviews and contract administration. This was one of the first plants with completely integrated process/product control applications. As well as one of the early departures from using internal engineering resources to contract resources or plant design.
**Wilmington, DE Development Engineer
Worked on development of composites manufacturing processes including process development for coating several different fibers (glass, carbon, Kevlar®) with multiple polymer types. Also worked on hi-speed spinning process alternatives for Lycra®)
**Wilmington, DE Process Engineer.
Member of $200MM Kevlar® Project Team. Responsible for startup assistance and change order management for three out of six principle process steps – solution prep, spinning and waste acid recovery