Littlejohn & Co., remote 2022 – Present
Littlejohn & Co. is a private equity firm ($8B AUM) focused on middle-market industrial and services companies.
Operating Partner, Strategy
- Collaborate with investment and executive teams to design and implement strategies for achieving investment thesis objectives.
- Lead strategic initiatives at portfolio companies which lack resources necessary for success.
- Support due diligence activities by assessing strategy and commercial strength and opportunity of acquisition candidates.
Northwest Hardwoods (now NWH), Tacoma, WA
2019 – 2022
NWH is the largest U.S. manufacturer of hardwood with 19 facilities in North America and more than 2,000 customers over 60 countries. Northwest Hardwoods was owned by Littlejohn & Co.
VP, Strategy & Marketing 2019 – 2022
- Developed and lead implementation of overall business strategy and global marketing, with emphasis on price.
- Led implementation of pricing program resulting in 3 percentage point EBIT gain in first year.
- Developed commercial strategy with the potential to double EBIT with minimal invested capital.
- Led post-restructuring strategy designed to build core competencies that would support future acquisitional growth.
GM, International Business Unit (interim) 2019 – 2020
- Led transformation of the International Business Unit to a profitable business.
- Focused team on business profitability rather than bulk volume sales resulting in a positive EBIT business for the first time since 2017.
- Introduced standard operating procedures to address poor discipline for collections and claims reducing working capital by 50 basis points.
Cogent Link, Powell, OH 2016 – 2019
Cogent Link is a boutique consulting firm providing interim executive leadership and strategy development for technology, engineered goods, and industrial businesses.
Principal / Owner
Select engagements include
- Interim President for cloud-connected building equipment business.
- Interim President for global, early-stage, advanced nanomaterials technology company.
NanoStatics, Columbus, OH 2015 – 2016
NanoStatics was a startup focused on nanofiber production technology.
President and CEO
- Developed market-back economic and commercialization models of end-use applications resulting in a business plan with data driven timescale/ramp and focused target markets.
- Led transformation of business model to provide in-house application development to accelerate growth and drove acquisition initiative to fill critical capability gaps.
- Led sale of business resulting in a technology licensing/ownership transaction.
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Sunpower, Inc., (now Ametek) Athens, OH 2009 – 2010
Sunpower was the world-leading developer of Stirling engines for ultra-efficient, hyper-reliable critical power generation applications and cryogenic cooling.
President and CEO
- Developed market migration strategy to enable reliable and rapid market entry for new products while supporting and long-term growth in larger markets.
- Grew revenues by 38% and net profit by 50% in first year through introduction of disciplined process, data driven decision making, and customer-centric approach.
- Led all activities to sell the business to a strategic buyer, including positioning, business plans, presentation materials, and banker selection/engagement, resulting in a successful exit.
Diamond Innovations / Sandvik Hyperion, Columbus, OH 2005-2009, 2010 – 2015
Diamond Innovations was a leader in highly-engineered materials for material-removal applications in automotive, aerospace, construction, electronics, mining and oil & gas markets.
VP Marketing and Business Development, Sandvik Hyperion 2014 – 2015
A successful merger of Diamond Innovations with Sandvik Hard Materials resulted in Sandvik Hyperion. Responsible for unifying product management, marketing, and business development across merged entities.
- Developed strategy for where to invest for growth and where to drive operational excellence in sales and manufacturing for the combined businesses’ portfolio of products/markets.
- Built a matrixed business-line organization with five global P&L units from the two merged entities.
- Developed performance requirements/metrics for manufacturing cost, delivery, and quality to be a world-class supplier to our customers.
- Designed plans and roadmaps with manufacturing and R&D leaders for achieving performance targets.
- Delivered 15% top-line growth in first year.
President and CEO, Diamond Innovations 2010 – 2013
Recruited back to lead the company by Chairman and investment leader of the Sandvik acquisition team. Full P&L responsibility for $275M business, with direct reporting of all global functions (Sales, Operations, Marketing, Product Management, R&D, IT, HR, Finance, Legal).
- Developed clear strategy with detailed, actionable plans/KPI’s that delivered 20% revenue growth and an incremental 5 percentage points of EBIT margin (approx. $14M EBITDA).
- Flattened the organization and created a culture of autonomy with accountability resulting in a high-performing organization and a 1.5% EBIT margin lift.
- Developed new customer-centric commercial model: partnerships with key customers; tailored product/service offerings, rewarding hunting rather than farming, and alignment of emerging-market sales organization to end-user application resulting in 20% revenue growth.
- Spearheaded “rapid innovation” approach to R&D resulting in a 400% increase the number new products introduced to market each year and reduced the average time-to-market by 75%.
- Championed Lean as method for improved operations resulting in 20-50% reduction in manufacturing lead-time, a 10% reduction of inventory, two (2) percentage point improvement to gross margins including a 14.5% reduction in manufacturing labor costs.
- Consolidated global manufacturing footprint yielding 4 percentage points of EBIT improvement.
- Rationalized investment of capital and resources with disciplined approach to concentrate business on high-priority growth markets.
VP Global Product Management and Marketing 2005-2009
Recruited to Diamond Innovations after purchase by Littlejohn & Co. seeking world-class product management capabilities.
- Developed team of direct reports to work as bona fide P&L owners within a matrix organization resulting in improved operations and R&D activities.
- Delivered 10-15% EBITDA growth per annum (excluding ’09 recession)
- Reversed historical -10% per year price decline achieved 3% price increase by implementing value-selling changing narrative to life-cycle economics.
- Grew revenues in Oil and Gas sector by $22M in two years through identifying market-based performance criteria and focusing R&D efforts.
- Integral management team leader during sale of business.
Booz Allen & Hamilton (now Strategy&, part of PwC), Cleveland, OH 1997 – 1999, 2000 – 2005
Booz Allen & Hamilton was one of the largest and best-known general management consulting firms prided as the “practical strategist”.
Principal
- Developed practice-area focused on product, marketing , and sales strategy.
- Heavy client engagement in the automotive and related industries.
- Strong use of quantitative analysis and rapid-experiment approach for informing data-driven decision making.
