St Louis, Missouri, United States
I’m an experienced and passionate leader, life scientist and strategist. As an executive, I have a strong desire to build corporate value by achieving outstanding business results, building and aligning teams, developing leaders, and empowering at all levels. From a more technical perspective, I’m skilled in technology development, manufacturing, sales/marketing/technical, supply chain, ERP deployment, regulatory, QA, and governance. In high school I realized my passion is science – especially chemistry and engineering. This led to me to complete degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering – finishing with a PhD in Chemical Engineering. But my first job after graduate school was in direct sales...how did that happen?! I wanted a career that would take me closer to the front lines of business and develop skills I did not possess. I developed these skills over the next 20+ years in positions that utilized my strong background in chemistry and engineering and pushed me to develop skills in sales, management, entrepreneurship, international business, quality management, operations/supply chain, IT, process improvement, planning/strategic goal setting. My first job was at a small, privately owned company. My territory was the entire US. I developed skills in negotiation, sales, distributor management, and key accounts. I loved it! My second job was at a small, privately held contract research company and I had to both sell and then deliver the work I sold. I developed strong project management and pharmaceutical development skills. The Open Book environment also expanded my business management and finance skills significantly. By moving to Novus I had an opportunity to develop my skills in a large international company. Novus has employees in 90+ countries. I've had several roles & developed additional skills in R&D, innovation, IT, manufacturing/supply, international sales. By 2025 I was promoted to President of the Methionine Business Unit. This very challenging role is using existing skills, developing new ones, and is on the FRONT lines of Novus business.
In this role I am accountable for developing and executing the short to long term strategy of the stand alone global methionine business of Novus. Significant focus on product cost optimization in manufacturing and distribution as well as channel customer/market segmentation. Key corporate governance accountabilities include compliance committee, audit committee, risk committee, IT Steering committee, and innovation pipeline committee.
In April 2023 my accountabilities were expanded to include R&D process and technology and the global IT organization of Novus. Two key current process technology projects for Novus core platforms are the focus of the R&D group. The key focus of the IT organization is development of an ERP roadmap for the implementation of a replacement solution for current SAP platform. In March of 2020 a new CEO started at Novus (Dan Meagher) and a major reorganization of executive team occurred. My role changed significantly and for the first time in my career at Novus I had a role in the Methionine Business Unit (MBU) by leading it. This was in addition to leading all supply chain aspects of the Specialty Business Unit (SBU), Regulatory, Quality, Procurement, and contract management. See Profile on Project Destiny. Key corporate governance accountabilities included compliance committee, audit committee, risk committee, IT Steering committee, and innovation pipeline committee. Served as lead for IT steering committee.
In March 2018, my role was expanded to include accountability for leading the three main commercial regions within the global network of Novus - the Americas, Europe/Middle East/Africa, and Asia. In total we sell products in over 110 countries. These regions are led by a regional Chief Commercial Officer who leads sales, marketing, technical services, supply chain, and customer service. This sales organization represents both business units of Novus - Methionine and Specialty products. This requires annual strategic and tactical planning to achieve growth goals using both organic growth or existing products and launches of new products to fulfill customer needs region by region. In addition to the commercial aspects above, my role retained accountability for leading the specialty business manufacture globally - including four plants (Mexico, Germany, Spain, and China) and for all manufacture through relationships with tollers and JVs. Responsible to provide and deliver manufacturing strategy that will support the strategic goals of the company and meet the needs of the commercial organization as related to cost of goods sold, quality, service levels, and sustainability. This includes capital expansions and projects Key corporate governance accountabilities include compliance committee, audit committee, risk committee, IT Steering committee, and innovation pipeline committee.
Led a group of scientists in completing contract research for large, mid, small, and virtual companies and was responsible for P&L. Research included cGMP & GLP work as well as non-regulated work in support of product formulation, analytical method development and analyses, failure analysis, and litigation support. Leveraged chemistry and engineering background to design, execute, and communicate results of sponsor studies supporting submissions to FDA (INDs, IDEs, NDAs, ANDAs, 510Ks) and championed 100s of such projects. Primary trainer/mentor for project managers, tech sales, key customers, and agency audits. As part of an agile management team, grew company revenues by 50% over four years, obtained the prestigious 'Fast 50'award in St. Louis, and grew pharmaceutical division 200% in revenue. Also successfully implemented 'Open Book' management and integrated Sandler Sales training into Design & Quote teams. As an individual sales lead, developed and closed the three largest contracts in company history. Exceeded previous records for repeat client base and quote win rate by 40% through customer service and focus.
Led a team of 4-6 chemists in contract research projects focused on separation science-based analyses (GC, HPLC, MS, TLC). Interfaced directly with customers in a business development role to design and quote contracts. Then served as internal project manager responsible for timeliness, profitability, and regulatory compliance (cGMP and GLP) of work performed. Also served on team for ISO accreditation and GMP auditor.
Excelled at the timely and regulatory compliant execution of customer contracts through the completion of contract laboratory work, including report generation. Typical analyses included GC, HPLC, MS, FT-IR, NMR, SEM-EDXA, and wet chemistry.
Generated revenue and grew product line offering of fine chemical manufacturer by serving as primary contact between customer and R&D/production department of Jost. As part of a two person team, grew sales year over year at 10+% each year.