SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS

Experienced business leader with strong technical skills. Has led multi-million dollar projects in the bio-tech, manufacturing, transportation and consulting sectors. Successfully managed numerous R&D/product development activities, transitioned research concepts into products, identified and pursued investment opportunities, and marketed to early adopters.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Pair of Docs Consulting, Saline, MI
Technology Consultant and Managing Partner
2001- present

  • Developed and executed a technology assessment process to collect, screen and recommend companies for use in multiple sustainability projects (building materials, renewable energy sources, waste remediation) at Wal-Mart facilities.
  • Managed a company which is developing a novel, high-power laser with applications in defense, homeland security, biotechnology and telecommunications. Negotiated joint-venture agreement and developed materials to seek $10M equity investment.
  • Led the software and system design efforts for non-invasive biosensor products, including ones for measuring and/or delivering glucose, melatonin, lithium, and nicotine. Performed premarket positioning analyses, prepared business plans, and arranged business partnerships.
  • Managed a company which is developing a novel, hydraulically actuated upper extremity prosthetic device. Was invited by the Department of Defense to participate in a workshop whose outcome was a prioritization of needed R&D efforts in the field of prosthetics.
  • Led the design of a fully modular, real-time machine control system, based on open-source products, such as Linux, Java and mySQL, for an established machine tool manufacturer that exceeded the capabilities of the existing controllers while saving a minimum of $25,000 per machine installation.
  • Led the design and deployment of a fully automated laboratory control system for a $50M laboratory that reduces recurring administrative labor by more than 80% and increases resource utilization by 25%.

Adapted Wave Technologies, Ann Arbor, MI
Vice President of Software Product Development
2000-2001

  • Led the software development effort for a dot com startup that created digital audio compression products vastly superior to MP3 and other market leaders.

American Science and Engineering, Billerica, MA
Engineering Director
1999-2000

  • Championed the establishment of engineering change order (ECO) processes and procedures for new and existing products that reduced ECO approval times from two-plus weeks to three days.
  • Directed design improvement efforts for the company's flagship product, a truck-mounted X-ray inspection system that reduced per-truck annual maintenance costs by $20,000.
  • Established a corporate-wide systems-engineering task force to facilitate the development of procedures that led to obtaining ISO 9001 certification.

General Electric Transportation Systems (GETS), Erie, PA
Technical Program Manager
1998-1999

  • Restructured the locomotive emissions compliance program, which was in jeopardy of missing EPA-specified deadlines, by promulgating system-level requirements, establishing internal deadlines, developing staffing requirements, setting technical objectives and ensuring compliance with EPA requirements.
  • Spearheaded the application of the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) methodology and developed DFSS methods and tools that have been widely adopted throughout GETS.

Cybernet Systems Corporation, Ann Arbor, MI
Engineering Manager
1994-1998

  • Established a product development effort in conjunction with Jewish Hospital, Louisville , KY , a recognized world-leader in hand surgery, to develop biomedical devices for diagnosing hand functionality.
  • Managed the engineering department and led development projects that focused on developing hardware and software virtual reality systems that engaged the user's senses of sight, sound, motion and touch, for uses ranging from telesurgery to medical procedure training to military mission training.
  • Created an infrastructure to streamline the pursuit of contract research opportunities that resulted in increasing corporate contract revenues from $1M to $4M annually and growing the staff from 20 to 60 full-time employees.
  • Spearheaded the development of Cybernet's first commercial product and attendant IP which was sold to Immersion Corporation for approximately $3.6M.
  • Directed projects including a transformable mobile robot, a virtual reality locomotion emulator, an intruder detector network optimization program, an optical interferometric sensor, a tactile stimulation feedback device, and a modular high-mobility all-terrain vehicle.

Field Robotics Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Senior Project Engineer
1989-1994

  • Facilitated the Carnegie Bosch Institute Managing Engineering Design and Development program, an management development program for senior managers of major international corporations.
  • Mentored more than ten undergraduate student research projects, whose topics included autonomous robotic navigation, time/motion optimization software, and walking robot design/development.
  • Designed mechanical systems, specified computer hardware, designed real-time software architectures, analyzed power systems, wrote operating system device drivers and specified communications systems.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Mechatronic Design/Project Engineer
1985-1988

  • Implemented a vision-based calibration scheme that improved the absolute end-effector positioning accuracy of a commercial robot, which was successfully used to assist a surgeon in performing stereotactic brain surgery.
  • Designed and built Robby the Rover, the testbed platform upon which NASA's Mars Rovers' software was developed.
  • Designed and fabricated electronic hardware; developed embedded computer software; developed, simulated and tested advanced robotic control methods; and designed operator control stations.

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University, Mechanical Engineering

Dissertation: A Genetic Methodology for Configuration Design. I invented a computational design methodology based on formal grammars and genetics-inspired manipulations of artifact descriptions that facilitates the design of real-world systems.

  • M.S., Texas A&M University, Mechanical Engineering
  • B.S., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Mechanical Engineering

RECENT HONORS

  • Current Panel Member, Clinical Neurophysiology, Devices and Neuroprosthetics Initial Scientific Review Group, the National Institutes of Health
  • Vice President, New Enterprise Forum

PATENTS

OTHER

  • Member, ASME and IEEE
  • Licensed Professional Engineer in Michigan and Pennsylvania