Advisors

Roland R. Cavanagh, PE

Education:

Engineer and Consultant:

Bringing together good Engineering practices, key Lean/Six Sigma tools, and years of hands-on experience consulting with myriad clients around the world, I provide:

Fact–based, data-driven philosophy of business improvement
Focus on durable, sustainable team building
Common sense, proven tools, and broad experience
Results. With finesse, integrity, and a sense of humor

I’ve been consulting to Fortune 1000 companies since 1990 in Operational Excellence, Team Performance and process improvement and re-design. I help clients achieve significant results through a combination of consulting, technical problem solving, and facilitation while implanting the skills and knowledge necessary to sustain the change.

I am practiced in manufacturing and both transactional service and transactional production environments, working 14 years in Engineering and Management inside manufacturing companies, then consulting in myriad industries since 1990.

I work equally well with Executive teams and front-line personnel, having consulted with GE, Sears, eBay, Sun Microsystems, America West Airlines, Shell/Texaco, Starwood Hotels, and many Financial Services and Insurance companies.

My style is to always infuse my real-life experience, translating theory into practical, successful implementations.

Susan Bouwer

Education:

Since earning a Master’s degree in Organization Development in 2017, I have worked on strategy, innovation, and change projects for small and large organizations. I call on my 20 years’ experience as a community organizer, non-profit manager, and volunteer team builder to connect with all stakeholders. I believe that the best solutions happen synergistically and collaboratively, with as many people offering input as possible in a controlled fashion. I have studied and written extensively about humor in workplace culture, and love to see the idiosyncrasies of humor in different organizations.

I’ve spent most of my life involved in the wine industry. I’ve done everything from polishing glasses at the first Napa Valley Wine Auction summer to tasting room summer jobs during college to home winemaking. Outside of the wine industry, most of my work has been with education and with non-profits to modernize processes and improve family outcomes.

I believe that people don’t resist change, they resist being changed, and have found that communication, common language, and transparency help people feel in control of their decisions.

Greg Gibbs

Education:

Master Facilitator

As a former teacher of English in Austria and Japan, an airline customer service operations executive, a professional interrogator, business management consultant and a family and organizational healing facilitator, Greg brings a variety of skills and perspectives to his work of fostering and nurturing collaboration with groups in both the public and private sectors.

Restoring flow is a core objective of Greg’s work, whether it is the flow of love in a family system, or the flow of creativity, goods and services in a commercial enterprise. This objective is accomplished with different tools and methods at his disposal, which are selected to fit the culture, the venue and the objective of the client.

Some of his Greg’s successful facilitation engagements include:

Helping a Knowledge Management Leadership Council identify and implement its yearly strategy
Bringing greater harmony to the members of a health care service support division. Results were better communication and much higher employee engagement
Facilitating a contentious change of strategy for the leadership of a large non-profit organization who were at odds with one another as a result of governing board pressure. The result was a unified approach to the new strategy that the board readily accepted

Greg is also a mindfulness/meditation instructor, whose clients include both for-profit and non-profit organizations, such as the Veterans Centers of California. He is certified change facilitator and Lean Master and was awarded the “Person of the Year” award by the Tempe, AZ Center for the Physically Challenged, for creating a program to engage center residents in airline audio equipment refurbishing.

In his spare time, Greg practices yoga, meditation and conducts sacred fire ceremonies with his wife, Vina.

Rowland Hayler

Education:

I am a highly experienced business transformation consultant and program director with proven change leadership and analytical skills developed over thirty years.

I gained my initial business experience at American Express where I served in a variety of leadership roles on large-scale business process reengineering, organizational change and compliance initiatives. My fifteen years at AXP included four as Chief Quality & Compliance Officer for the International Merchant Services Group.

Following several years of process transformation consulting for a variety of global brands including BP, Cisco Systems, & HSBC, I began work at Gatwick Airport for Global Infrastructure Partners in 2011. I was appointed interim CIO in March 2012 and subsequently led the separation of major operational systems at Edinburgh Airport following GIP’s acquisition.

I returned to Gatwick Airport in 2014 to lead a number of strategic transformation initiatives to improve On Time Performance and optimize runway and airspace capacity. I devised the highly innovative design concept to utilize the airport’s Northern Runway for Dual Runway Operations and have spent the last four years leading Gatwick’s Single Runway Optimization program to increase runway throughput capacity from 55 to 60 aircraft movements per hour.

Tony Cann

Education:

My passion is building and improving systems. I am an experienced project and functional manager in engineering design, IT consulting, and process improvement. Trained as a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, I am experienced resolving customer-focused issues and is an experienced facilitator. I have:

Helped develop Six Sigma capabilities at Sun Microsystems as member of initial cadre.
Led development of Operational Excellence capabilities in Corporate Engineering department of Genentech.
Improved performance of Sun’s equipment at customer sites and improved relationships with customers.
Over $4M in cost reductions achieved in IT department at Sun using Six Sigma in 2005.
Facilitated senior management problem solving sessions.
Delivered $1.5M Java software development effort within budget and schedule.
Supported eBay in maturing their IT processes after a “CNN moment.”
Managed engineering department of 150 engineers building satellite control systems.
Performed detailed risk assessments for $1M+ programs.

As Director of Systems Engineering, helped venture capital backed start-up company go from $0 to $6.4M in sales

Matt Rowe

Education:

Operations Consultant

Improving operational efficiency across multiple industries relying on key Lean/Six Sigma tools, and other improvement methodologies, and the good sense that comes from years of hands-on experience, I provide:

Data-driven, holistic approach to business operations
Common sense, proven tools, and broad experience
The understanding that Results do not come from a “one size fits all” approach

I’ve been a change agent and consultant of one sort or another most of my adult life. I started as a military adviser in Latin America for numerous military and police forces in the region dealing with Communist insurgencies and narco-trafficking cartels. My first “civilian” job was as a security consultant to the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games in 1996. I was then hired as an Assistant Venue Security Manager for the Olympic Beach Volleyball Competition. Recruited by General Electric, I trained as a Six Sigma Black Belt and spent the next two decades as a process and operations improvement professional, with a year and a half long break as an insurance Sales Agent and Market Manager for GE.

Since then I have used my operations and process improvement skills to work in both manufacturing and service industries and experience has taught me not to be constrained by a single approach to getting things done. Every job is unique to its corporate environment, so implementing any change…no matter how good or practical…must be acceptable to the people it affects, or it will not last.

I’ve taught and used Lean Six Sigma, WorkOut, Rummler Brache, and other change management methodologies at both the tactical “get-it-done” level, and on the enterprise-wide scale. I have been very fortunate to work with GE, Ingersoll Rand, Kirby Risk, Pacific Gas & Electric, Wells Fargo, Vectren Energy, US Bank, and many others.

Mark Welch

Education:

I have a 25-year success record as an Operations and Consulting professional and am considered an expert in Lean Sigma Enterprise solutions.

I bring my practical experience as the former Director of Lean Enterprise for Littelfuse, the largest circuit protection company in the world, where I had the ultimate responsibility for the philosophy, training, roll-out, marketing, and execution of their global Lean Enterprise program.

My client engagements have included manufacturing as well as office/transactional and service implementations.

Advisors

Roland R. Cavanagh, PE

Engineer and Consultant:

Susan Bouwer

Greg Gibbs

Master Facilitator

Rowland Hayler

Tony Cann

Matt Rowe

Operations Consultant​

Mark Welch

Operations Consultant