Antonio (Tony) Rodriguez is a certified management consultant with 35+ years’ experience in encouraging collaboration and progressive thinking to bring about effective change and organizational transformation. With expertise in facilitation/team development, Lean Six Sigma, lean continuous improvement, re-engineering, and supply chain optimization, supplier diversity, strategic sourcing, asset management, and productivity improvement, Rodriguez has successfully directed projects for large and medium-sized entities, both public and private, national and international. His far-reaching experience and knowledge have saved clients millions of dollars by improving their organizational effectiveness, productivity, customer responsiveness, quality, and labor management.

With his project teams, Rodriguez helps guide clients through continuous improvement methods, cost reduction strategies, performance measures, and professional development.

Education and Professional Training

• Dartmouth College, Tuck School of Business: MBE Executive Management Program
• BA, Political Science, University of New Hampshire
• Associates Degree, Mattatuck Community College, Waterbury, CT
• Dale Carnegie Sales Courses
• CMC Accreditation, the highest accreditation in management consulting granted by the Institute of Management Consultants

Affiliations

• Past President and Member, Rotary Club of West Hartford, CT
• Member, Institute of Management Consultants
• Member, Florida South Minority Supplier Development Council, Inc.

Ken Allen is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with 30+ years’ experience in process management and improvement. Ken assisted in establishing the present Lean Six Sigma system utilized by the US Army and developed a highly successful Self‐Directed Work System in a DuPont manufacturing facility. He developed and instructed Six Sigma training and implementation at GE Aircraft Engines (GEAE). Ken has served as a faculty member with several large Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma training efforts, including GE Energy. He has a Master’s degree in Industrial Education from Fitchberg State University.

Mike Beauregard is an international consultant and lecturer on the application of lean manufacturing and quality improvement techniques to manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution operations. He has held engineering, manufacturing, and plant management positions in the discrete parts manufacturing, plastics, and chemical process industries.

As a consultant, Mike has successfully applied improvement techniques in companies ranging from 10 person start-up companies to Fortune 500 manufacturers. A chemical engineering graduate of the University of Maryland, Mike is a registered Professional Engineer and a Certified Quality Engineer. He is an eight-time member of the Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award and served the two Connecticut quality awards as a senior examiner, team leader, and instructor. He is certified in lean implementation by the Supplier Excellence Alliance (SEA), the aerospace supply-chain consortium, and is certified as a lean-six sigma master black belt by the Management and Strategy Institute. While living in Japan on an extended business assignment, Mike spent half a year studying and applying the Toyota Seisan Hoshiki (Production System) with tutelage from Ohno san. Mike has co-authored 21 books and training systems on quality improvement and lean manufacturing tools. He is currently working on a book on downtime reduction techniques based on his experiences over 30 years of hands-on work in that area.

Frederick (“Rick”) Buchman is a certified LSS Master Black Belt with more than 30 years’ experience as both a senior leader within large companies and an external consultant in designing and implementing quality management systems (QMS) and operational excellence (OPEX) programs. His experience includes both government (Fed – U.S. Army, state and city) and industry (aerospace, automotive, construction, mining, retail distribution, telecom, electronics, oil & gas, and insurance). Mr. Buchman has developed and led highly successful LSS programs worldwide, integrated with Operations, Engineering, Material and Supply Chain Management. Most recently he helped a large telecom client implement a LSS program, assisted with project and candidate selection, and provided expertise in Kaizen, VSM, VFA, and customer satisfaction improvement. He is skilled in strategic planning and scorecard/ dashboard design and implementation. Rick is the co-author of “Balanced Scorecard Strategy for Dummies” (Wiley, English 2007, German & Dutch 2008) and the contributing author of ‘Business Efficiencies for Dummies’ (Wiley, 2012), and has published several papers on the Customer Experience and process optimization. Rick holds Ph.D. (ABD) and MBA degrees in Business, and a B.S. degree in Mathematics. He is Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Master Black Belt, Agile/Scrum Master, Lean Innovator and Professional Trainer (Instruction System Design and Delivery) certified. Rick speaks fluent English and German, and limited Spanish and Italian, and is a retired U.S. Army LTC with 28 years in leadership (Command & Staff at Battery, Battalion, and Division levels) and training (CGSC instructor).

Vince Capasso has over 35 years of process design and improvement, strategy design and deployment, operational excellence, and project management experience in a broad variety of organizations that include government, manufacturing, service, and healthcare. He is highly skilled and knowledgeable in many areas, including Lean Six Sigma, Strategy, Human Centered Design, Change Management, Project Management, Agile, and Enterprise Architecture. Vince is a certified LSS Master Black Belt, Project Management Professional (PMP), Scrum Master, and Process Architect. He works effectively at all levels of an organization, from basic staff through the C-Suite, and has worked effectively across all departments with a deep understanding of effective matrix organizational concepts.  He is a coach and teacher and can create effective training and presentations for all audiences. With experience in many industries and organizations, including the public sector and the military, Vince flexes his tool set and approach to meet the need and specific “personality” of any organization.

Education

• S. Finance, Bentley University, Waltham, MA
• S. Accounting, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, NH

Certifications

• Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt
• Project Management Professional (PMP)
• Process Architect
• Agile Scrum Master

Florence Gerber specializes in continuous quality and performance improvement. She partners with government, education and healthcare organizations. Gerber collaborates with leadership and creates a trusting dialogue with cross functional work groups where participants feel safe to share innovative ideas for improvements. She works as an extension of the client’s improvement team and immerses herself to understand daily operations. With nearly 25 years of experience leading improvement projects, Florence Gerber uses evidence-based methods and techniques through facilitation, education and coaching.

Gerber holds a BS in commerce/organizational analysis and an MBA with a concentration in organizational effectiveness. A Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award examiner, she is a Lean Black Belt and Six Sigma Green Belt. She holds certificates in Implementing the Lean, as an Emotional Intelligence Practitioner, Brian Profile, California Association of Dental Plans (CADP) Consultant, Facilitative Leadership, Leading & Facilitating Conversations on Race, Building Partnership Across Differences™, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Competency and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Incident Management System.

Ken Golden is a senior consultant and project administrator with Daniel Penn Associates, LLC, and has over 35 years of information systems, management consulting, and project management experience. Ken’s expertise includes government and commercial projects involving procurement, inventory, warehousing, distribution, invoicing, reporting, administrative operations, information systems, finance and tax, and regulatory affairs. Mr. Golden has managed and provided administrative and management support on contracts with the U.S. Army, the U.S. General Services Administration, and state agency contracts with the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. He has provided administrative support with project plans, budgets, timesheets, expenses, invoices, risk assessments, reporting, and deliverables.

Education

• Post-graduate study in financial accounting, George Washington University, Washington, DC
• B.A. Operations Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA
• S.E. Electrical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

Certifications

• P.M. Certified Purchasing Manager
• CPIM Certified in Production and Inventory Management
• CDP Certified Data Processor

Cheryl Grayson is a learning consultant, author, illustrator and life coach. She focuses on individual, group and organizational effectiveness with deep knowledge of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. For more than 30 years she has directed leadership curriculum development, change management and training programs. She served in senior organizational development and training positions at CIGNA Corporation, Accenture, V Simplify, Bayer Corporation Pharmaceuticals, The Hartford, and Covidien/Medtronic. Grayson designs and develops a range of interventions to create common understanding of and commitment to behaviors associated with high performance. Her tailored programs help clients develop collaborative cultures and provide a framework for engagement around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Cheryl’s learning and train-the-trainer performance management modules help clients transition to narrative-based, coaching-centered, performance review approaches. Grayson holds facilitation certifications from MBTI, DiSC, DeBono’s Six Hats for Problem-solving and Decision-Making, Blanchard’s Situational Leadership, CCL’s 360 Benchmarks, EQi 2.0 Emotional Intelligence, SMS Personal Power and Influence. She is a graduate of Brown University.

Applying organizational behavior assessments, performance management, sales optimization and lean methods, Peter Harlamon has improved customer service and sales and reduced costs for clients in North America, Europe, Australia, China, and Southeast Asia. He earned his MBA with a concentration in International Business at the University of Hartford, with additional studies in organizational behavior and sales methodologies.

Howard Klein has more than 35 years of significant management and design experience in the distribution center and manufacturing floor installation and operations, including startups, re-engineering existing space, and multi-site build-outs. Applying lean concepts to warehouse and fulfillment operations, he designs and installs highly efficient work environments, develops and installs new warehouse management systems to improve logistics and helps operations align their operational goals with business strategies. Howard’s experience in inventory management, warehouse operations, fleet operations and maintenance, and custodial operations span projects at manufacturers, distributors, and university systems. Howard received a masters’ degree in industrial engineering from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Henry “Hank” Kocevar has an extensive technical background in maintenance and reliability programs from the technician to the management level. He has provided proven recommendations for improvement of maintenance, reliability, and asset management programs for both government and industrial clients. His focus is on preventing asset failures through implementation of comprehensive corporate asset management programs. These asset management clients include higher education, specialty chemical, pulp and paper, mining, oil production and refining, and the U. S. government maritime agencies.

Mr. Kocevar is a certified maintenance and reliability professional (CMRP) by the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP), since 2004. He is a certified NAVSEA Level II RCM analyst, and also trained in a multitude of system equipment including hydraulics, diesel engines, HVAC, boilers and integrated control and monitoring systems.

Andrew Lopuchowycz is a principal consultant and associate with over 25 years of hands-on business management consulting experience. He has been directly involved in the development and implementation of Lean Enterprise solutions for the past 19 years. Andy received his initial Lean training from the founders of Shingijitsu, experts in the Toyota Production System, while at Wiremold (a premier example of full Lean Enterprise in North America). He has experience directing and developing highly diverse, multicultural organizations in union and non-union environments, and has helped to significantly improve their overall performance. Andy’s background is diverse, growing from Engineering and Operations to Engineering Executive roles. His skills include Strategy Development and Deployment with an emphasis on performance management processes, Operations Planning, Gemba Kaizen including Factory Flow, TPM, SMED, Value Stream Mapping, and Administrative Kaizen. He has extensive Quality System Experience in Industrial, Automotive, and Aerospace markets (ISO9000, ISO14000, TS16949, AS9100). He holds an MBA from Syracuse University, a B.S. in Physics from Roberts Wesleyan College and a B.S. mechanical engineering from Clarkson University.

Kate McGovern is a Lean trainer and practitioner. She has conducted Lean trainings at the state, local, and regional levels and facilitated kaizen events for state, municipal, and nonprofit organizations. Her experience includes developing Lean belt programs for the State of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island. In addition to her Lean work, Kate has taught at Springfield College, School of Human Services and College Unbound. She has an MPA from the University of Hartford and a Ph.D. from Fielding Graduate University. Kate is the author of Challenges in Pension Governance: A Case Study of the New Hampshire Retirement System and A Public Sector Journey to Lean: Fighting Muda in Times of Muri.

Rich Overman, Ph.D. CMRP, CRMT, has over 35 years of experience in working with companies and facilities to improve their organization as well as their equipment maintenance and reliability. He is the author of the internationally known book “Reliability Centered Asset Management.” His experience covers many industries, including higher education, jet aircraft, nuclear power plants, mining, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and nuclear fuel conversion. He is an expert in process design, FMECA, RCM, life cycle cost analysis, and other aspects of equipment maintenance and reliability.

An internationally known speaker, trainer, and author, Rich has spoken at numerous conferences and was invited to be an eminent speaker for the Maintenance Engineering Society of Australia (MESA). His paper at the MESA annual conference, “The Core Principles of Reliability-Centered Maintenance,” was published in the Asset Maintenance Management Journal (V22. N1). He has taught courses on Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices and Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM) in the USA, Canada, Malaysia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Suriname, Israel, Papua New Guinea, and Australia. He also authored the book, “Versatile Reliability-Centered Maintenance” and was on the team that wrote the original Society for Automotive Engineers RCM standards, JA1011 and JA1012. Most recently, he published the book Reliability Centered Asset Management.

Rich has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, a Master of Science in Science Education, and a Ph.D. He also has a Graduate Certificate in Maintenance and Reliability Engineering.

Anthoney Pavelich, PMP, PMI-ACP has both the Project Management Professional (PMP) and Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) certifications from the Project Management Institute. He attained his MBA degree with a concentration in Project Management from the Keller Graduate School of Management at DeVry University. Over the last two decades, Anthoney has gained experience in a variety of industries such as banking, supply chain, warehouse management, and training development. He works with clients to run projects as well as improving and building their project management processes. Anthoney also hosts his own podcast “The Biker PM”, where his topics cover project management and entrepreneurship. He is an adjunct faculty member at Sheridan College, teaching in the Project Management and Business Analysis certificate programs. He also delivers both PMP and PMI-ACP prep courses to help ensure the next generation of certified project managers are ready for the test. Anthoney has also volunteered with PMI and with Endeavour Consulting helping non-profits develop projects.

Cynthia Schuler has over 20 years of experience managing the full life cycle of human resources. She has assisted organizations in aligning their processes and procedures with their strategic goals by assessing current strategies and developing and implementing plans for process improvements. Her work includes consulting on talent acquisition and management, benefits, compensation, employee relations, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI+B). She has implemented process improvement initiatives to increase operational performance, including rollout and training on HRIS, ATS, and Performance Management systems. She has implemented process changes to align with clients’ overall business strategy.

Education

• S. Business Administration, Strayer University, Washington, DC.
• S. English Literature, University of Maryland, College Park, MD.

Certifications

• Certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR).
• Society for Human Resource Management Certified Professional (SHRM-CP).
• Certified in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University.

Charles Spillman has thirty years’ experience in consulting and facilities management, with projects ranging from maintenance enhancement to integrated and activity-based costing systems to budgetary control systems to productivity/scheduling improvement programs. He has teaching credentials with the Departments of Navy, Army and Energy, teaching reliability practices, change management and management for engineers.

He serves a number of sectors: military and industrial, pharmaceutical, refining and petrochemicals, pulp and paper, primary metals, mining, food service, engineering, automotive stamping and assembly, software development, clerical, distribution and custom fabrication.

Prior to entering consulting, Spillman taught Business Administration at the University of Kentucky and continues as a visiting lecturer when time permits.

LeRoy Thompson has 30 years of expertise in delivering solutions to meet a wide range of organization development, executive coaching, managerial, supervisory, and employee training needs. He works with a broad range of clients in racial equity, diversity, and inclusion. Thompson’s work in the public sector has included the U.S. departments of Energy, Interior, Justice, Defense, Agriculture, Treasury, the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, Arlington (VA) County, Riverside (CA) County, and Sarasota (FL) County. Clients include T. Rowe Price, Cox Communications, Marriott Corporation, McCormick, Gannett, the American Bankers Association, the American Cancer Society, United Way of America and local United Ways across the country. In the wake of renewed focus around racial equality, he has facilitated sessions for federal agencies, developed engagement strategies for municipal governments in the selection of new chiefs of police, and created and delivered training curriculums for organization-wide racial equity training to state agencies. Thompson served in positions at McKinsey & Company, Kepner-Tregoe and Booz Allen and Hamilton. He received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a master’s degree from Columbia University School of Business. His award-winning TV broadcasting and publishing credits include “Written Skills for Business Communications” (AMA-By-Satellite), the book “Mastering the Challenges of Change” and the Strategy and Leadership magazine article “e-Commerce: Changing the Rules of Strategy Implementation”. He is a Certified Agile Scrum Master, Certified Virtual Presenter and Certified Virtual Host.

Glen Veno is a certified management consultant with more than 18 years of experience. He has been involved in the design, development, and implementation of both manual and computerized maintenance systems for more than 80 clients across the US, Canada, Mexico and Venezuela. Glen’s consulting assignments span numerous industries with extensive work in chemical processing, automotive manufacturing, utilities, and pharmaceuticals. He holds a BS in aviation technology and management from Western Michigan University and is a member of numerous professional organizations including APICS, Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD).