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Our Team:
Mary Drotar
Partner
Mary Drotar is a strategic innovation professional with extensive industry and
consulting experience. Her career encompasses multiple dimensions of innovation,
including the development of products, services, business models, business
processes and the customer experience.
Mary began her career at Ford Motor Company and she progressed through various
positions in marketing and development. Mary then joined AT&T Bell Laboratories,
concentrating in the areas of strategy, voice of the customer and scenario
planning.
Mary transitioned to consulting and she successfully helped scores of companies
develop strategies, as well as new products, services and
business models. She was Director of Consulting at Cambridge Management
Consulting and subsequently appointed the position of Vice President at Targetbase Marketing, a firm specializing in marketing analytics.
Mary has an MS in Organizational Leadership and Development from College of St.
Catherine’s and an MBA from The University of Chicago. She is certified as a New
Product Development Professional (NPDP) by the Product Development Management
Association (PDMA). She is also certified by the PDMA as a NPDP Preparation
Review Instructor, and is on the certification committee. Mary serves on The
University of Chicago Innovation Roundtable Board as the VP of Community and
Business Development. She also serves as a board member for the PDMA Chicago
Chapter as the VP of NPDP certification and is a member of the Society of Women
Engineers.
Guang Ji
Consultant
Guang has considerable expertise in new product development. She began her career as a Manufacturing Supervisor and Process Engineer at Samsung Electronics Company in Tianjin, China. At Samsung, Guang led the startup of a full-scale manufacturing facility that launched $6M in products. She then joined Motorola China as a New Product Development Coordinator, and was responsible for leading the process engineering team.
Guang transitioned to Motorola in Illinois as a Senior Software engineer and Project Leader. During this time she managed and mentored global product teams across Europe and Asia. She is currently working as a consultant for Strategy 2 Market, and is an integral part of the team. Guang has provided considerable expertise to our client base in the area of new product development processes and engineering methods for both hardware and software.
Guang has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Tianjin Institute of Technology, and she is currently working on her MBA from The University of Chicago.
Jim Moran
Director, Business Development
Jim has specialized in helping build businesses by developing and executing strategic, customer-oriented marketing initiatives. His career work includes new business development, solutions selling, integrated marketing communications, service bureau management, and information design.
Jim has developed go-to-market tactics and led engagement teams serving small, mid and large organizations including Kraft, John Deere, Options Clearing Corporation, Northwestern University, IDEX, Freightquote.com and others. A few of the important products Jim has helped launch include: a foreign currency exchange clearing system; a budgeting and decision-support software suite for hospitals; a consumer checking account management system; an industrial pump service plan; a hands-free, voice-recognition medical records device. Jim was a key contributor in commercializing PC-based computer-graphics software applications that paved the way for desktop presentation programs. He also co-founded a computer-graphics service bureau, selling it after a successful sixteen-year run.
Jim’s education and training include an undergraduate degree in Art and English from Western Illinois University and a BFA and graduate studies in design from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is a Business Marketing Association Certified Business Communicator. And Jim is an active Volunteer for the Arts with the Arts & Business Council of Chicago.
Kathy Morrissey
Partner
Kathy has over 20 years of experience with Fortune 100 companies specializing in market and customer research, strategy, business processes and models. She is an expert in the early stages of the new product development process; including innovation, product, market, technology, and portfolio strategies. In addition, she has extensive experience in market analysis, quantitative methods and voice of customer techniques.
Kathy was a senior manager in research and strategy positions with Ameritech, Household International and CNA Insurance Companies. She has led research projects to develop customer segmentation systems, quantify customer value and understand customer choices and preferences. She has also led large teams in developing coordinated planning initiatives for business and product strategy. Kathy is also a successful entrepreneur, having founded two businesses in the music industry.
Kathy is a mathematician that has an MS in Statistics from Carnegie-Mellon University and has completed the doctoral core courses. She also has an MBA from the University of Chicago. She is an active and long-standing board member of the Chicago Chapter of the American Statistical Association and currently Vice-Chair of the national ASA Council of Chapters
She is certified as a New Product Development Professional (NPDP) by the Product Development Management Association (PDMA) and serves on the Certification Committee. She is President of The University of Chicago Innovation Roundtable.
Martin Zummersch, PhD
Instructor
For the last 20 years, Martin has been involved in Product Development and Innovation. He has worked in the industrial and durable consumer goods industry in the U.S., Europe, and the P.R. of Asia for companies that are market leaders in their respective industry.
While leading engineering organizations, he was responsible for the development of new product development strategies, the creation of successful product portfolios, and the development and launch of large product platforms. This included the implementation of portfolio planning systems and decision tools.
Martin began his career at GEA Corporation in Germany. He worked in R&D, developing centrifuges for the biochemical industry. He then joined Nordson Corporation’s engineered system division, leading efficiency and capital investment initiatives in Europe and the US, and led a focus factory for custom engineering homelt application systems
While working for Fortune Brands he progressed through various business units as program manager in new product development and led the development of several key new product development initiatives. He was also responsible for global R&D and supply chain development of decorative finish technology. At Elkay Manufacturing Company, he lead product development and implemented the web based portfolio planning and project management tool Daptiv.
Martin earned degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Marketing in Germany. He also holds a MBA in Operations Management from the Case Western Reserve University, where he received his Doctorate in Management, investigating group decision making concerning innovation.
Martin is also part of the adjunct faculty at the Case Western Reserve University, Weatherhead School of Management, and the Robert Morris University in Chicago.
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