BRADFORD L. GOLDENSE, NPDP, CMfgE, CPIM, CCP

President & CEO

Brad Goldense is Founder and CEO of Goldense Group, Inc. [GGI], a twenty-year old Needham, Massachusetts consulting and education firm concentrating in advanced business and technology management practices for line management functions. Mr. Goldense has consulted to over 200 of the Fortune 1000 and has worked on productivity improvement and automation projects in over 500 manufacturing locations. He has worked in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Abbott Laboratories, Bayer, S.C. Johnson, Ford, General Motors, John Deere, Philips, United Technologies, Carrier, Molex, Monsanto, Bose, and Shure are among GGI's clients.

Mr. Goldense is a member of the faculty at the Gordon Institute of Tufts University in Medford, MA. He holds a BS in Civil Engineering from Brown University and an MBA in Cost Accounting and Operations from Cornell University. Brad is a certified New Product Development Professional [NPDP] by the Product Development and Management Association, a Certified Manufacturing Engineer [CMfgE] by the SME, a Certified Computer Professional [CCP] by the ICCP, and is Certified in Production and Inventory Management [CPIM] by the APICS. He is Worldwide President of Society of Concurrent Product Development [SCPD]. He is a member of Cornell University's Technology Transfer Committee and recently served a three-year term on Cornell's Advisory Council. Brad is a past member of the Board of Directors of the American Society for Engineering Management [ASEM].

Mr. Goldense has been an invited guest on Alexander Haig's World Business Review and has appeared on Public Television, PBS The Business & Technology Network, and CNBC. Brad has authored or been quoted in over 150 articles on competitive product development and manufacturing with known industry publications such as CFO, Design News, Machine Design, Purchasing. He is an internationally recognized expert in rapid product development practices, and in R&D metrics.

Prior to founding GGI in 1986, Mr. Goldense held positions at Computer Sciences Corporation's Index Group, Price Waterhouse, Lester B. Knight & Associates, and Texas Instruments.

JOHN R. POWER

Director, Executive Education
Director, Intellectual Property

John R. (Dick) Power has been practicing in the advanced and new product development and production areas for over thirty years. He is highly experienced in project management of large and complex high technology products from initial phases of technology evolution through production, distribution and sustaining support.

Mr. Power served as a US Army Signal Corps officer for thirty years, retiring as a Colonel in 1992. For most of that career he was a leader in acquisition of electronic systems for the Army, serving as a Procurement Officer, Agency Manager, Product Line Manager and Major System Program Director. In his role as the Program Manager for the Army Mobile Subscriber System, Colonel Power was responsible for a $4.3 Billion program that developed, produced, tested and distributed a complete combat mobile telephone system to the Total Army. Noteworthy is the fact that the system was delivered on time and within budget, passed its field tests, and performed powerfully during Desert Storm. Previously Colonel Power had headed product development and production/deployment efforts for the Army's family of Automated Test Support Systems.

Mr. Power worked for eight years with GTE Corp.; four years in the GTE Government Systems Corp. where he was Director of Total Quality. In that capacity Dick lead the company through its quality transformation and ISO 9001 certification, he organized and coordinated their benchmarking activities, and he provided consulting and facilitation to product development and reengineering teams. He subsequently became the GTE Corporate program manager for information security and remained there until GTE's merger with Bell Atlantic to form Verizon Corp. Dick has established contacts with telecommunications and technology product companies around the world from his military acquisition and benchmarking experiences.

Mr. Power holds a BS degree in Business Administration from Northeastern University and an MBA from Babson College. He is a graduate of the Defense Systems Management College Systems Acquisition course and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He also holds a Diploma in Financial Management from Boston University. He is currently a Certified Financial Planner certificant (CFP) and was previously certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP).

Ervin A. Kule

Manager, Market Research

Ervin A. Kule has ten years of experience spanning research and financial analysis and administrative management, to client relations and business development. He has worked in Europe and America for financial and service industries.  Mr. Kule has held a variety of analyst, management, and executive positions.

Before joining GGI, Ervin was the General Manager for Maliotis Cutural Center in Brookline MA. There he produced and coordinated conferences, seminars and other events for various industries including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, telecommunications, as well as non-profit organizations. Mr. Kule worked across many management tiers including founders of companies, Directors, CEOs, VPs, and top-level managers. In Greece, Ervin was the cofounder and a partner for five years of a real estate company where he focused on innovation and modernization of condo apartments, and the implementation of new methods of revenue generation and realization. Prior to that he worked as an international financial analyst for two years for an investment company affiliated with Citibank.

Mr. Kule holds a BA from the University of Athens. He came to the US with a scholarship to study eastern versus western religious philosophies at Holy Cross and graduated with a Masters in Theology. Mr. Kule has largely completed the requirements for a Masters In Business Administration from the University of Athens Graduate Economics and Business School.

DONALD M. STEWART

Principal Affiliate, Consulting

Donald M. Stewart has been practicing in the marketing and new-product business strategy areas for the past thirty-five years, and in the concurrent engineering area for the past fifteen years. He is highly experienced in both out-bound and in-bound marketing, and in product development.

Out-bound marketing centers on helping clients identify new market areas and penetration strategies, positioning products in the marketplace, and improving marketing and sales function productivity. In-bound focuses on implementing concurrent product development processes that emphasize learning from the customer, defining product needs in competitive marketplaces, and in selecting and justifying product designs. Don also consults in the specification and selection of marketing and engineering design automation systems.

Mr. Stewart worked for twenty years with Teradyne, Inc. Teradyne is the leading U.S. designer and manufacturer of semiconductor test systems. Don held a variety of positions at Teradyne including product manager, sales manager, sales engineer, and market support engineer. He has first-hand knowledge of product development practices in a wide range of technology-oriented companies in the U.S., Pacific Rim, and Europe. Don has done business with hundreds of companies around the world. He is an expert in semiconductor equipment; and in capital equipment marketing, design, and manufacturing.

Mr. Stewart holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from MIT, and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. He has spoken at industry conferences on the topics of product specifications and production equipment, and has authored several articles in the trade press.

JOYCE F. KENNEDY

Associate, Consulting

Joyce F. Kennedy has five years of industry experience spanning professional services, customer service, sales, administrative management, and intellectual property administration. She has worked in management consulting, executive education, retail, and food services. She has routinely managed customer relations and ensured customer satisfaction throughout her career.

Joyce has developed business skills in the areas of planning and scheduling, personnel management, office management, graphics and production, customer service, and sales. At GGI, Joyce has worked with pharmaceutical companies, electrical and electronic component and systems manufacturers, medical device manufacturers, academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations. Ms. Kennedy has contributed to GGI’s research on product development processes, including emergent Agile software methods. At Main Street Restoration, a restorative construction firm, Joyce managed the office and developed company procedures for ensuring client satisfaction.

Ms. Kennedy holds a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Political Science from Assumption College.

CYNTHIA W. DEMAIO

Senior Editor, GGI RapidNews
Member, GGI Editorial Staff

Cynthia W. DeMaio brings 26 years of writing and editing experience to GGI. Her past includes a wide range of experience from general assignment reporter at the Norwich (CT) Bulletin, to contributing editor at the alumni newspapers of Rhode Island College and Brown University, to editorial work at KMI Research, Providence, RI. She also was the publisher of a free newspaper distributed in Rhode Island in the late 1990s called Pet Life and the Animal Kingdom.

Ms. DeMaio began her professional career as a Marketing Communications Specialist at Rogers Corporation, Rogers, CT. There she wrote news releases about products sold to the aerospace, electronics, defense and automotive industries. During her tenure at Rogers, she also wrote and placed technical articles in leading trade publications including Design News and Machine Design.

Ms. DeMaio holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Rhode Island.

ANNE R. SCHWARTZ

Principal Affiliate, Market Research

Anne has over 17 years of technical experience in manufacturing environments in the aircraft engine and telecommunications industries. She most recently served as Customer Quality Manager at Corning Lasertron, Inc. of Bedford, MA, handling customer needs and working closely with engineering and manufacturing to resolve field problems. Prior to that Anne worked in several different roles at GE Aircraft Engines in Lynn, MA. Originally a mechanical engineer performing control system design and analysis, she shifted her focus to process improvement and training when she became Manager of Technical Education and Continuous Improvement Facilitation. At GE she developed and led numerous focus groups and interactive workshops on process improvement, creative problem solving, Quality Function Deployment, and many other CI/TQM techniques with a wide variety of participants, from production workers to senior-level management, customers and suppliers. She also became very involved in the development and leadership of the New Product Introduction process at GE, one of the precursors to the Six Sigma Program.

Anne has been actively involved with the Society for Concurrent Product Development (formerly the Society for Concurrent Engineering) since 1995, serving on the Program and Conference committees. Anne graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Mechanical Engineering at Tufts University and earned a MS in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, with a concentration in control system design. She was an exchange student at L'Institut National des Sciences Appliquées in Lyon, France and speaks fluent technical and conversational French.

Paul A. Szulewski, PMP

Affiliate, Consulting

Paul A. Szulewski has held technical and management positions in R&D, software and hardware engineering, and manufacturing operations for over 30 years. He specializes in project planning, measurement, assessment, compliance, process definition, and process improvement. He has pioneered research in software metrics, and evaluation methods for products, processes, documentation, and organizations.

Prior industry positions include: Senior Manager for Product Quality for the Defense Business Unit Operations Group at Mercury Computer Systems for 8 years; Member of the Technical Staff - Software Engineering at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory for nearly 20 years; and software developer – operating systems with Sanders Associates (now BAE Systems) for 5 years.

Paul holds a BS degree in Mathematics from the University of Massachusetts, and a MS degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Oregon State University. Paul is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), a certified ISO 9001-2000 Lead Auditor, and a founding member of the National Software Council (NSC), now known as the Center for National Software Studies (CNSS). Paul has been a reviewer for the IEEE Software Journal, and has spoken at several major software engineering conferences on the topic of software metrics, and has published his results in conference proceedings, military handbooks, and textbooks. His most recent publication is a review of a Next Generation Product Development textbook which was published in PDMA’s Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM).

ROSS SEIDER

Affiliate, Consulting

Mr. Seider is a seasoned high-technology engineering executive who has a proven track record at both small and large companies.

Mr. Seider joined Akamai Technology before the IPO in 1999 as Vice President of Engineering. In this capacity, he was responsible for the development, and operational integrity of a dozen separate revenue services that fueled Akamai's growth from $4.5M in all of 1999 to over $160M in 2001. Mr. Seider grew a predominantly university-based, pre-IPO engineering team of under 80 to 250 seasoned software professionals, and institutionalized the disciplines necessary for a scalable, multi-site service company. In early 2000, he took on operational responsibility for Akamai's service delivery network, which grew from 1,000 servers in 15 countries to over 10,000 servers in 65 countries. In parallel, he integrated three corporate acquisitions that occurred within a four months time span, rationalized conflicting product sets and closed two ineffective development centers.

Prior to Akamai, Mr. Seider spent 12 years at Motorola in a variety of executive roles including, VP Engineering of the Multimedia Networking Group, VP/GM (P&L responsibility) of the Transmission Products business unit, and Director of Multimedia Product development.

For 7 years prior to Motorola, Mr. Seider was a co-founder and VP Eng. of two high tech networking companies, Concord Communications and Concord Data Systems. Mr. Seider also held marketing and engineering positions with Codex Corporation, and engineering positions with Raytheon Corporation.

Mr. Seider holds an MBA from Northeastern University and a BSEE from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has also completed numerous courses at Motorola University.

HOANG H. TRAN

Affiliate, Consulting

Hoang H. Tran has worked both on the East Coast and in Silicon Valley for over a decade, architecting and building software applications for a variety of platforms ranging from embedded systems to the internet. Mr. Tran has held multiple positions as Director of Engineering, lead software architect, and lead developer for companies that develop digital and/or embedded software solutions for the business marketplace. Hoang has also held key positions involving the creation of technical software models and computer simulations that mirror complex physical phenomena. He is one of a few people capable of managing wave generation software used for testing the America's Cup Yachts.

With Vocomo Software, as Director of Engineering, Mr. Tran was responsible for software development, professional services, and the IT infrastructure. Vocomo Software is a voice application products and services company best known for its work with ATX Technologies to voice-enable telematics services for Mercedes Benz. With Portfolio Corner, as Director of Engineering, he built a multi-disciplinary engineering team with developers distributed throughout the Bay Area, Boston, and Jamaica. Portfolio Corner is a financial services company that provides software applications to financial planners and advisors. As a Lead Design Engineer at Origins Software Company, Mr. Tran built a shrink wrap application to create database access objects, formalized vector-based software testing, and created bullet-proof product documentation. Origins is a RAD tool developer focused on simplifying the software development process for building client/server and web-based applications. Mr. Tran was with ADC Metrica where was an Application Engineer for embedded systems development.

Mr. Tran holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and an MS degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering both from MIT. He has co-authored several articles in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics. Mr. Tran has experience designing and developing software using a wide range of databases, application servers, and web servers including Oracle, MS SQL Server, MySQL, MS Access, Apache Tomcat, IBM WebSphere, ATG Dynamo, Apache HTTP Server, and MS Internet Information Server. Additionally, he is proficient in many programming and scripting languages including Java, VB, VC++, C, Perl, VoiceXML, ASP, JSP, PHP, JavaScript, VBScript, shell script (DOS, csh, sh), and XML. Mr. Tran's experience also includes Open Source development tools like CVS, JUnit, Apache Ant, Apache Tomcat, and Apache HTTP Server and some experience with XP Programming techniques.

JOHANNA ROTHMAN

Affiliate, Consulting

Ms. Rothman has over fifteen years of experience in the software engineering and software management fields. She is an expert in the areas of software process, software development, software quality assurance [SQA], and software program management. Johanna has experience managing software engineers, and a large number of projects and programs ranging from 6 person-months to 120 person-years.

Johanna has specific knowledge in a variety of hardware and software systems, including: Sun workstations, Symbolics workstations, Apple Macintosh, DEC VAX, DEC PDP-11 series, and Data General Nova series. She has used a variety of software operating systems and languages, including: C, Lisp, Magic/L, RAIL, Fortran, assembly languages, and microcode.

Ms. Rothman was formerly with Boston Technology as the Software Engineering Director, and previously as the Software Verification Director. In her tenure at Boston Technology she was responsible for a variety of improvements in the company's software process and tools. She was instrumental in instituting proper program management policies as the first Program Manager of a substantial software release. Johanna also worked for Symbolics as Director of Development Software, and held prior positions in the Software Quality Assurance group where she was responsible for final QA on new software releases. While at Symbolics, she was responsible for the development of the MacIvory which was the first machine to have Lisp on a chip.

Ms. Rothman has a BS in Computer Science and a BA in English Literature from the University of Vermont. She has an MS in Systems Engineering with a concentration in Software Engineering from Boston University.

RALPH G. SCHMITT

Affiliate, Consulting

Dr. Ralph G. Schmitt is a dynamic, experienced Senior Consultant skilled at rapid, creative, cross-functional problem solving and product development. He brings 24 years of executive experience to the GGI team.

Ralph was most recently President of Kysor/Warren, a pioneering manufacturer of supermarket refrigerated display cases and back-room refrigeration systems. He recruited a turnaround team to save the 120-year old company. This new executive team rebuilt every facet of the business and the company went from "worst to first" among five major competitors. Prior to Kysor/Warren, Ralph was with York International. There he served in executive roles in two business units for industrial air conditioning.

Today, Ralph serves on the Advisory Board of Directors of the Society of Concurrent Product Development. In 2004, he was also elected as a Director-at-Large of the Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Institute, the industry's principal trade organization.

Ralph received both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Aeronautics & Astronautics at MIT. He graduated first in his undergraduate department and won a National Science Foundation Fellowship. He then earned another Master's degree in Engineering from the University of California at Irvine.

RENEE V. DORJAHN

Affiliate, Consulting

Renee V. Dorjahn is a seasoned results-oriented leader with broad business management experience. Renee's particular strengths include managing software and hardware development projects, developing high performance teams, problem solving, and mentoring.

Most recently, Renee spearheaded commercialization efforts for a new-to-the-world medical device. She wrote business plans for ophthalmic drug delivery and laboratory fluid handling applications, collaborated with clinicians and engineers, and presented at scientific meetings. Under her management, the company received an Investigational Device Exemption from the FDA.

Earlier, Renee conducted market research at several Motorola divisions and at Digital Equipment Corporation. She established an international Customer Advisory Council in support of new product development. She assessed market opportunities, customer profitability, and conducted competitive intelligence. In a business process improvement role, she analyzed internal NPD cycle time and conducted external benchmarks. Renee created and institutionalized new idea screening and product launch tools, and created a training course on quantitative and qualitative methods for gathering new product requirements.

Ms. Dorjahn also has significant operational experience after many years with Motorola. Renee established a division-wide program management office, and has hands-on experience managing multi-continent development teams, including co-design with partner companies in Asia. She also led a Motorola - Dell Computer team that integrated Motorola communications into Dell desktop PCs. She has organized and managed product line migrations, product sunsets, application of target cost methodology, and a call center for end user support. She negotiated several software licensing and component supply contracts while building an order entry/fulfillment infrastructure that supported 300% annual growth.

Renee has a BA in Mathematics from the Robert D. Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon, and a MA in Statistics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

MOSONGO MOUKWA

Affiliate, Consulting

Dr. Mosongo Moukwa has over twenty-five years of technical management experience in helping companies improve their profitability by commercializing new technologies, developing new markets, and diversifying their product portfolio through technology development, technology transfer, and business development initiatives.

As Vice President of Global Technology-Coatings Products at Reichhold Inc. he initiated and led the transfer and incorporation of new protective coatings for automotive interiors from Dainippon Ink and Chemical (DIC). He has been involved with a wide range of chemistries and products ranging from digital toners, ink jet, and CD and DVD coatings to conductive polymer technologies. His in-depth knowledge of host country customs allowed him to create and manage a network of worldwide technology groups across Europe, North America, and South America. He strengthened the relationships between other diverse technology groups based in Japan and China, leading to additional successful cross-commercialization efforts.

Dr. Moukwa was Vice President, Global Technology at Johnson Polymer, a division of the S. C. Johnson family of companies. In this position he managed global alliances, knowledge sharing, and intellectual property and technology processes. Mosongo designed and implemented measurement criteria to assess overall R&D activities relative to return on investment (ROI) and sales growth and profitability that lead to an increase of overall ROI from R&D. With Degussa Admixtures, he held several positions including R&D Manager, Director of New Product Development, and Technical Director. Dr. Moukwa began his career as a development engineer with Engineering Consulting LGC in Belgium.

Mosongo earned his PhD in Engineering from the Universite de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, and an MBA from Case Western University, Cleveland, Ohio. He is a graduate of the Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, with a bachelor degree in Applied Sciences. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, the Commercial Development and Management Association, and the Licensing Executive Society.

WILLIAM KELLEHER

Affiliate, Consulting

William [Bill] Kelleher has over 30 years of industry and consulting experience with both small and large companies across product development, engineering, manufacturing, operations, and program management. Working with the Thomas Group in the US, Europe and Asia, Mr. Kelleher created and streamlined business processes by forming, leading, mentoring and inspiring corporate-wide cross-functional teams to identify and eliminate non-value added process steps, process barriers, and substitute processes. Many clients achieved greater than 50% gains in time to market for new products, enhanced their front-end strategic product selection filters and portfolio management capabilities, realized closer links between engineering and manufacturing, and improved their ability to measure and monitor activities and improvement. Bill has in-depth experience in high tech capital equipment, lighting, consumer products, and the automotive industries with companies that range from five to several hundred simultaneous R&D projects.

Prior to the Thomas Group, Mr. Kelleher held various management positions with Data General and Honeywell Information Systems. He led Data General's largest manufacturing facility as Plant Manager and was Director of Corporate Quality, Director of Design Assurance and Director of Project Management.

Mr. Kelleher holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from Northeastern University. He is a Certified New Product Development Professional with the Product Development Management Association [PDMA], and a member of the Society of Concurrent Product Development [SCPD]. Other memberships include the Society of Manufacturing Engineers [SME] and the American Society for Quality [ASQ].

E. ROBERT ST.GERMAIN

Affiliate, Consulting

Mr. St.Germain has over twenty years of management and consulting experience in the manufacturing and services industries. His specific areas of experience include corporate management, strategic and operational planning, information systems management and planning, and financial management and accounting. Mr. St.Germain is an Adjunct Professor of Information Systems Management in the MBA program at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Mr. St.Germain was formerly with Codex Corporation, a Motorola subsidiary and manufacturer of communications equipment and software. Mr. St.Germain held several positions with Codex over an 10 year period. Initially, he was a developer and then manager in the Information Systems development function. A significant area of focus was improving the overall effectiveness of the IS function, and aligning it with corporate strategic direction. Mr. St.Germain then managed the Corporate Planning function for three years during a period of transition and redirection. He then returned to the IS function for two years as Director of Advanced Systems and Planning to manage a multi-million dollar development project, and to initiate an enterprise-wide technology integration effort. Prior to joining Codex, Mr. St.Germain ran his own consulting business for several years. He has served as a District Controller for Servomation Corporation which is a national food services company, and as Controller for EPEC Industries which manufactures printed circuit boards. Mr. St.Germain managed Providence Pile Fabrics 250 person manufacturing finishing operations. In the military, he was a Captain in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Mr. St.Germain has an MBA from Babson College with a concentration in Information Systems, and a BSBA from Babson in Finance and Accounting. He is a frequent speaker at seminars and professional organizations including the Babson Center for Information Systems Management and the Planning Forum. He is a member of the Boston Society for Information Management. 

KENNETH A. CROW

Affiliate, Consulting

Kenneth A. Crow manages a small consulting and education firm for the manufacturing, high technology, aerospace and defense industry. His firm focuses on improving product development through the implementation of integrated product development, process re-engineering, time-to-market, and total quality management practices. He is a distinguished speaker and recognized expert in the field of concurrent engineering, Previously, he served as Vice President of the Professional Services Division for a manufacturing software supplier and as a Director of the Manufacturing Consulting Practice in a Big Six firm.

In these roles, he has directed major operational improvement programs, implemented systems, and provided concurrent engineering/integrated product development consulting and education for numerous manufacturers including Alcatel, FMC, GEC, General Electric, GM Hughes, IAI, Kodak, Lockheed, Loral, MSA, Naval Avionics Center, NEC Corporation, Northrop, Rohr, Sandia National Laboratories, Solar Turbines, Sundstrand, Textron, Thiokol, and United Technologies.

He has twenty years of industrial experience in concurrent engineering, design for manufacturability, computer integrated manufacturing, cost management, manufacturing management, quality function deployment, team-based organization, and total quality management, He has written articles and papers, contributed to books, conducted workshops, and given presentations on these subjects in Australia, North America, Europe and the Middle East. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board for DFM Alert.

He is a member of the American Society for Quality Control, the American Production and Inventory Control Society, the Society of Computer-Aided Engineering, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and a founding member and on the Board of Directors of the Society of Concurrent Engineering. He is a Certified Configuration Manager through ADPA and is Certified in Production and Inventory Management through APICS. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Information Systems and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California at Los Angeles.

PETER MARKS

Affiliate, Consulting

Peter Marks is known for his wide-ranging knowledge of computer-aided design, manufacturing, and information technology, Mr. Marks has helped more than 100 companies in the United States, Europe, and Pacific Rim to streamline their development processes and develop successful new products.

Prior to Design Insight: work in product planning, design, manufacturing engineering, quality assurance, marketing, and operations. Former Senior Vice President, Automation Technology Products; Managing Director of Product Planning, SDRC; Senior Engineer and Manufacturing Engineering Supervisor, Ford Motor Company; and Manufacturing Research Associate, U.C. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. Mr. Marks is a frequent advisor to senior executives and product development teams, His consulting practice includes advisory services for vendors and internal education services for users of new design and manufacturing methods.

Mr. Marks initiated the independent studies program at the University of Cincinnati, earning highest honors (Masters, 1973, 4.o/4.0, B.S,, 1972, Magna Cum Laude) in three colleges; with concentrations in industrial design, mechanical engineering, human factors psychology, and marketing communication, He served as president of the college governing body, played intercollegiate soccer, and was voted "outstanding Senior" by students and faculty. His work beyond graduate school has included a research project each year from 1978 to the present (sixteen to date).

GARY K. CONKOL

Affiliate, Consulting

Gary is a Mechanical Engineer with expertise in engineering and manufacturing applications of the computer with emphasis on CAD/CAM/CAE. He currently works as Team Leader in Customer Application Engineering for Sterling Truck Corporation. Previously he has worked for the US Army Civilian Tank-Automotive Command, Ford, Eaton, Mercedes-Benz and Picker International.

Gary was the first Technical Program Manager for the Cleveland Manufacturing Technology Center (now called the US Manufacturing Extension Program with 76 center in the US). His CAD/CAM selection and implementation techniques spread throughout the entire program as well as internationally. Later he started the Cleveland CALS Shared Resource Center (now called the ECRC) as Technical Director. The subsequent Regional Interest Group (RIG) activity resulted in the growth of over 100 EC user groups in 36 states and similar in 11 other countries and won Gary the coveted 1996 CALS Meritorious Service Award.

Gary and his wife founded Conkol Computing Services in 1984 where he serves as principal in engineering and manufacturing systems. To date Gary has 11 international publications, over 60 US technical papers and has given presentations, consulted, and taught in 8 countries.

Gary has a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Wayne State University and a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cleveland State University.

DAVID G. MEEKER

Affiliate, Consulting

David G. Meeker is an authority on the application of Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) and its role in new product development. His areas of expertise include DFMA, benchmarking, cost estimating, and design for disassembly and recyclability. Mr. Meeker has worked in both commercial and defense industries applying new product development techniques to improve quality, time to market, and reduce cost. Some of his clients have included: Sencorp, Precor, Boeing, Pfizer, Becton Dickinson, and General Electric.

Mr. Meeker was a principal engineer with HP, Compaq, and Digital in the Product Design and Manufacturing Technology Group. He has consulted to several design teams, performing competitive analysis, product benchmarking, cost estimating, and DFMA analysis. In addition, through HP’s participation in the Leaders in Manufacturing program, Mr. Meeker taught product design at MIT in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Previously Mr. Meeker consulted for the Digital's Design for Manufacturing Institute providing consulting to external customers. He both assessed design/manufacturing problems and recommended appropriate methodologies for improving quality, reducing time to market, and reducing cost. Prior to joining HP, Mr. Meeker worked for Avco Systems Division both as a design engineer and manufacturing engineer on tactical and strategic weapons systems.

Mr. Meeker holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Engineering and Public Policy both from Carnegie-Mellon University. He is the national instructor of DFMA for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Mr. Meeker is nationally recognized as an expert speaker in the area of new product development, design for manufacturability and assembly, and benchmarking. He has been quoted in numerous articles in Machine Design, Computer-Aided Engineering, and Appliance Manufacturer. He was the recipient of the 1992 Editors Choice Award from Appliance Manufacturer for work he did in design for recyclability.

TIMOTHY G. BLASKO

Affiliate, Web Development

Mr. Blasko is a Northeastern University College of Computer and Information Science (CCIS) cooperative education student who has studied computer systems for the last five years. He has more than a year of experience in applying his knowledge of information systems and web development and his work environment has included both large and small scale IT operations. He has built, designed, and maintained commercial websites, and has worked for several years in retail management. Tim is currently a freelance web designer in his spare time, for either personal or commercial needs. One of his career goals is to officially start his own business in website construction and design.

Tim has quality of web design as his driving interest. To maintain the best quality web construction, Tim builds all his websites according to the most up to date standards by the Worldwide web Consortium (W3C). This includes following the 'html 4.01 strict' markup specifications, as well as the 'xhtml 1.0 strict' specifications set forth by the W3C. He also follows and practices the up to date standards in Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) based web design, and validates all his style sheets to make sure they meet the CSS 2 and 2.1 standards. Tim also works with Javascript for creating dynamic websites and is in the process of learning AJAX, Perl, and SQL to build upon his abilities. In addition to his web-based skills, Tim is familiar with the Java and C+ programming languages, as well as with computer networking.

Before joining GGI, Tim worked at Sasaki Associates as part of their IT staff. He manned the Help Desk for an office of over 250 people, cloned and ghosted systems, and assisted the Network Administrator.

Tim is in his last year at Northeastern University CCIS and is a candidate for a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Science in 2007.

ALAN KWAN

Affiliate, Web Development

Mr. Kwan has two years of experience in information systems, website development, and quality assurance. He has worked in both professional services and high technology companies. Alan has managed outside contractor development efforts and administered work order management systems for prioritizing and issuing work packages.

Alan is versed in several programming languages, web development tools, and development platforms including: C, C++, Java, HTML, ASP, PHP, VBScript, ColdFusion, and Homesite. Mr. Kwan has developed with advanced object-oriented languages including Microsoft .NET and has built ASP.NET applications. He is experienced in website traffic monitoring and analysis. Alan also has significant experience in graphic and multimedia design using Adobe and other design suites. He has produced several audio and video CD products currently in the marketplace.

Prior to coming to GGI, Alan held positions with Sun Life Financial as a Quality Assurance engineer and with Barefoot Technologies as a web developer. At Sun Life, he tested for bugs and other issues in the company's main application to maintain assurance information of groups and individuals. With Barefoot, he wrote an ASP application for use by real-estate clients on the Web.

Alan has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Northeastern University.

DONALD H. SKENDERIAN

Affiliate, Web Development

Mr. Skenderian has two years of industry experience in the areas of business development, marketing, event planning, and information technology management. His experience spans the banking industry, state government, academia, manufacturing, and high-tech.

GORDON R. WITHERS

Affiliate, Web Development

Mr. Withers is an expert in website design and internet development technologies. He is familiar with a wide range of web development platforms and tool sets including HTML, DHTML, XML, Java, JavaScript, Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Freehand. Mr. Withers is also experienced with common GIS tools, including ArcView and MapInfo.

Prior to working with GGI, Gordon spent four years with GIS startup Syncline, Inc. where he was a webmaster and developer. With Syncline, his experience includes projects for Telephia, MassGIS, Excel Corp., and Deerfield Beach, Florida, among others. Mr. Withers is also a professional freelance cellist.

Gordon has B.A.'s in both Music and History from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He earned an Artist Diploma in Cello Performance from Brandeis in 2001 and currently studies with Rhonda Rider of the Lydian String Quartet.