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We are currently looking for experienced
senior level new product development (NPD) professionals who have deep
NPD experience (engineer, product manager, marketing and R&D) to help
grow our business. Experience with a consulting firm and selling consulting
service is a plus.
Please contact
Mary Drotar for more
information.
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Our Team
Therese Graff
Principal
Therese is a product development professional with extensive experience
in medical devices and in vitro diagnostic devices. Her expertise includes
streamlining the product development process, integration with quality
systems, and application of design controls with ISO 13485 and FDA 21
CFR 820.
Therese began her career at Abbott Laboratories and progressed through
various positions including a transition from wet chemistry to complex
instrument project management. Her work in the Project Management Organization
(PMO) enabled project consulting with design teams across the division.
After joining Hollister, Therese managed the Stage-Gate process and
integration with the project and portfolio management tool.
Therese earned a BS from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,
with concentrations in Chemistry and Biochemistry, and an MBA from the
University of Chicago. Therese is certified as a Project Management
Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and as
a New Product Development Professional (NPDP) from the Product Development
Management Association (PDMA).
James B. Kauffman
Principal
Jim is a highly experienced growth strategy professional, combining
25 years as a consultant, with 18 years of senior level, client-side
experience in leading consumer products companies.
Jim’s special areas of strength are in strategic planning, marketing
strategy, and identifying viable new growth platforms and concepts.
For 25 years, as a co-founding partner and consultant with The Everest
Group, Jim has helped numerous clients find new paths to profitable
growth by leading them through a disciplined process of discovery, strategic
option identification, ideation, and concept development and assessment.
His industry experience spans food and beverage, other consumer packaged
goods, foodservice, retailing, hospitality, housewares, packaging, ingredients,
health care, printing, home improvement and financial services. Well
over 100 companies - large and small, public and private - have benefitted
from Jim’s capabilities, experience and insights in finding new paths
to growth.
Prior to consulting, Jim spent 18 years in line management positions.
He was Vice President of Consumer Publishing for several years with
Rand McNally. Before that, he spent 11 years with Quaker Oats where,
as Vice President of Product Management, he led marketing teams in the
Foods and Pet Foods Divisions in driving growth through both existing
product revitalization and new product development. Jim began his career
at Procter & Gamble in the Toilet Goods Division. He later joined Gillette’s
Personal Care Division as New Products Manager.
Jim earned an M.B.A. in Marketing from the University of Pennsylvania’s
Wharton School and a B.A in Economics from Beloit College.
John C. Levine
Principal
John Levine is an innovative marketing professional with more than
thirty years of experience in brand marketing and new product development.
His expertise in new product development is in innovation strategy,
market opportunity assessment, brand leveraging, idea generation, and
process improvement.
John has held line management positions with both Fortune 100 and
entrepreneurial firms, where he provided new direction and leadership
to improve business performance. He began his career in brand
management with leading consumer marketers such as H.J. Heinz and Pillsbury,
advancing to the role of Director of Marketing–New Products. His
accomplishments included developing and launching new products to extend
brands into new categories and market segments, and revitalizing brands
to reverse sales declines. As Vice President of Marketing for
a new venture, Bernard Foods, he led pioneering marketing and sales
efforts to expand the business in an emerging category.
John earned an MBA in Marketing from Northwestern University’s Kellogg
School of Management, and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan.
Featured Speakers:
Dan Brown
Dan embarked on a career in the chemical and plastics industry where
he applied his science education, and natural ability in engineering
to a fast track business career. While serving in roles of increasing
responsibility in the rapidly globalizing marketplace of the 1980's,
Dan quickly discovered the necessity of creating competitive product
advantages to sustain a business model. These early marketplace experiences
inspired Dan to identify and create many new technologies for his employers
and later his consulting customers leading to the creation and commercialization
of over 30 patents in basic research, B2B, and B2C markets.
As a consultant, teaching and executing this strategy though his
clients organizations, Dan has worked with large and small companies
to create and commercialize many differentiated products and processes
for their customers, often creatively redefining these spaces, while
at the same time receiving intellectual property protection to secure
the commercialization investment for these projects. Beyond product
development and commercialization, Dan is an organizational specialist
in the design process, lean supply chain implementation and the integration
of differentiated distribution channel strategies.
As an advocate of leveraging design leadership to create and support
sustainable markets, Dan has participated in numerous interviews, conferences
and educational activities. One of Dan's life goals has been to teach.
Dan attended St. Xavier University, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology,
with a minor in Chemistry. He earned a Master’s Degree in Product Development
(MPD) from Northwestern University where he is currently an Associate
Professor at Northwestern teaching in both the Graduate and Undergraduate
programs in the McCormick School of Engineering.
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