America
Elaine Kowansky - President and CEO
Elaine has over 25 years of senior business experience. A graduate of GE's Information Management Leadership Program, Elaine held multiple CIO positions and was one of the first GE leaders trained in Six Sigma by Mikel Harry in 1996. For more than 2 years, Elaine was the Global Deployment Director of Six Sigma in IT for GE, and later led multiple initiatives to build GE Centres of Excellence and drive technology initiatives.
As co-founder and CEO of GELRAD, Elaine has worked with CEOs and other senior business leaders to introduce and drive Lean Six Sigma initiatives. She has spoken at large conferences and annual leadership meetings on Lean Six Sigma, outsourcing, and customer loyalty. Elaine holds a BS in Information Systems Management from Boston University.
Kit Connolly Turner - Process Consultant
Kit has 26 years of experience in sales, marketing, customer service, consulting, and education. During her 15 years with General Electric Co, she held positions as a Sales Service Manager, Commercial Education Manager, and Manager of Global Leadership Development. Kit was responsible for the education and development of over 900 field sales and marketing representatives in the US, Europe, and Asia. This gives her a broad perspective of commercial and customer issues, as well as the effectiveness of education and training. She has designed and facilitated GE strategic change sessions (CAP), facilitated WorkOut!TM process improvement sessions, developed internal expertise & capability to train others, and designed & developed curriculum for global internal GE personnel as well as global GE customers. In her 13 years as an independent consultant and business owner, she has worked with several Fortune 500 organisations such as; General Electric Co, General Motors, SUN Microsystems, Metavante Corp, Kimberly-Clark, Teledyne Corp, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Covidien, Textron Financial, and Henkel-Loctite focusing on organisation development, leadership development, change management, business process improvement, team performance, strategic planning, and training and development.
Kit is an active Consulting Associate for the GE Energy Learning Center, GELRAD, Destra Consulting Group, HRD Consultants and an adjunct professor at the Jack Welch Leadership Institute in Crotonville, NY. Kit earned her B.S. degree in Marketing/ Management from Siena College, Loudonville, N.Y and in 1993 a GE certified Executive MBA, through the "Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation Program" from Hecht & Associates, Sunnyvale, CA. Kit is also a GE Certified Master Change Agent.
John Dziark - Master Black Belt
John has over 30 years of industrial experience in the areas of new product development, process improvement and Lean Six Sigma.
John's Six Sigma experience began in 1995 with GE Silicones. Since 2000, he has assisted a host of diverse organisations in implementing Six Sigma including; chemical and petrochemical, automotive, health care, agricultural, printing and energy management businesses. John received a B.S. in Chemistry from State University of New York at Albany and a M.S. from the University of New Hampshire and is the author or co-author of 12 U.S. Patents.
Norm Friberg - Master Black Belt
With over thirty years of management experience, Norm has trained hundreds of Green Belts, Black Belts and Master Black Belts in Lean and Six Sigma methodologies, at all levels up to and including entire executive teams. He couples his technical background with many years of experience in developing competency and organisational change. Norm led Volvo Cars of North America's Total Quality Management initiative in the 1990's, as well as their Six Sigma deployment starting in 2000, resulting in 8-digit financial savings. Norm has a Master's degree in Environmental Engineering.
Mark Hindal - Master Black Belt
Mark has over 25 years of business experience with a focus in manufacturing, consulting and process improvement roles. He had a 17 year career with GE Plastics where he started in strategic planning and held numerous roles in marketing, product management, and materials and logistics before becoming a Master Black Belt.
With over 10 years in the consulting industry he has accumulated a broad Lean Six Sigma background with experience in the information technology, financial services, insurance, and energy industries. He has conducted nearly fifty waves of Six Sigma training and coached/mentored over 400 black and green belt projects. Mark holds a BS degree in Applied Mathematics from
Harvard University.
Paul Doyle - Black Belt
International Lean-Six Sigma consultant with over 15 years experience in Quality Management, Engineering, Organizational Training and Plant Managment with P&L responsibility. Results-oriented team leader adept at problem solving and quality, engineering and production systems. Keen sese of continuous improvement (CI) benefits for contributing to bottom-line profitability and top-line growth, striving to exceed customer's expectations with delivered results.
Paul is a CI & LSS Simulation Instructor and trained over 1,000 students. Paul has been a been a practicing Black Belt since 1999 with both domestic and international assignments. Paul is experienced in aerospace, power generation, vacuum alloys, pulp & paper and HVAC assemblies. Paul was a commissioned officer with the U.S. Navy and holds an M.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Arkansas.
Ram Josyula - Vice President Innovation and Master Black Belt
Ram is a GE Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and an ASQ certified Black Belt. He has over 20 years of industry experience in manufacturing, engineering, software, HR, and finance. Since 1995, as Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Master Black Belt, Quality Director and a VP, Ram has been deploying Lean Six Sigma to realise business goals for companies such as GE, Ford, Volvo, BP, BP Solar, Jaguar, Textron, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merrill-Lynch and Tyco Industries.
An award winning coach and a mentor, Ram is committed that participants of his seminars grasp Lean Six Sigma fundamentals in an enjoyable, practical and useful way. In addition to training over 1000 Green Belts, Black Belts, Champions and Senior VPs, he has also coached and delivered over 500 successful Lean Sigma Projects in the US, Europe and Asia. He has authored training materials for Lean, Six Sigma and Design for Lean Sigma and conducted several Lean Kaizen workshops. Ram holds a Master in Technology Management from MIT and a B.S. from Indian Institute of Technology.
Dan J Sommers - Master Black Belt
Dan J. Sommers, President of Advanced Quality Leadership, Inc., has over 30 years experience as a quality manager, quality engineer, and industrial statistician. His Six Sigma experience includes two years as a Manufacturing Black Belt, two years as an Engineering Master Black Belt, and eight years as an international implementation and training Master Black Belt. The majority of his career has been spent with General
Electric Lighting.
He is a senior member of the American Society for Quality, a certified quality engineer, and a member of the American Statistical Association. Dan has published articles in ASQ's Journal of Quality Technology and was awarded ASQ's Brumbaugh Award. He is also a chapter co-author in the Juran Quality Control Handbook, fourth edition. Dan holds a B.S. degree in Actuarial Science and an M.S. degree in Statistics from Ball State University, and an M.S. degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Iowa.
Jud VanWyk - Master Black Belt
Jud has over 27 years of experience at various GE businesses and Six Sigma Academy. At GE, he has held positions in process engineering, outsourced manufacturing, quality leadership, and Six Sigma in the U.S. and Japan. At Six Sigma Academy, he provided consulting and training to several clients in Six Sigma, Lean, DFSS, TRIZ, and continuous improvement. Jud has earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Minnesota and a B.A. in Mathematics from Macalester College.
Jim Davis - VP Business Development
Jim has over 20 years of international
business experience in sales, marketing,
operations, management, consulting and
entrepreneurship in multi-business, multi-
function, culturally diverse environments. Previously, Jim was a VP at TECT Corporation where he was the CI Leader, and appointed to the executive engineering council at Florida State University.
At GELRAD, Jim is working with clients and consultants worldwide to expand existing client relations, market development and product development. Most recently Jim has managed the launch of GELRAD's Centre For Sales Excellence with the Jed Wood, the subject matter expert, and GELRAD's Order-2-Cash practice with Rod Gordon.
Jim earned a B.S. in Oceanographic Technology from Florida Tech and M.S. in Management, with a concentration in Leadership and Organizational Development from Troy University. Jim is Six Sigma trained by GE and VMS trained by UTC.
