Bill Edwards Email & Phone Number

Libertyville, Illinois, United States

Libertyville, Illinois, United States

Entrepreneurial and resourceful manufacturers representative providing operations improvement, sales & marketing, M&A, supply chain management, operations launch, and logistics services to international industrial companies.· Led the expansion of German auto parts company into NAFTA.· Crafted supply chain and logistics strategy for $5B steel client in.

Greater Chicago Area

• Designed and implemented on-shoring strategy for international automotive components supplier.
• Expanded German automotive manufacturing and logistics company into NAFTA – starting with no employees, equipment, or domestic legal entity.
• Responsible for all NAFTA region sales.
• Established a marketing strategy, built the customer base, and launched operations.
• Secured multi-year contract for new plant operations, replacing in-house OEM production.
• Represented company in negotiations with nine automotive OEMs in North America.

Greater Chicago Area

• Business turnaround situation.
• P&L responsibility for a $100M metals logistics provider with 600 employees, leading the company through an excruciatingly difficult time in the industry.
• Stabilized a distressed company by optimizing 13 warehouses, fleet of 400 trucks, four rail terminals, and supply chain management service.
• Leveraged strategic price increases, lean re-engineering, service growth and a focus on former customers to significantly increase revenue and EBITDA in less than six months in the role.
• Eliminated annual costs by decreasing surplus capacity through closures and reducing overhead.
• Awarded AON SafeFleet certification, named as one of the safest U.S. trucking companies.

Greater Chicago Area

• Led 200 people and held P&L responsibility, successfully increasing warehousing revenue.
• Opened seven new, profitable facilities and closed five unprofitable operations, adding to EBITDA.
• Launched new logistics service for automotive OEMs.
• Reduced workplace injuries by 80% by identifying and implementing improved safety procedures.

Portage, Indiana, United States

Fiduciary Board. Indiana Stevedoring was an international joint-venture of Alternative Distribution Systems and Federal Marine Terminals created to win and retain a franchise from the State of Indiana to conduct international seaport and logistics operations at Burns Harbor, Indiana.

Montebello, California, United States

Fiduciary Board. Pacific Western Warehousing & Distribution, LLC, (“Pac West”) was a joint venture of Alternative Distribution Systems, Inc. (“ADS: - 60% owner) and Pacific National Transportation Warehouse Systems, Inc. (40%) created to offer rail-to-truck transloading, warehousing, and distribution services in the Los Angeles market.

Greater Chicago Area

• New product launch and commercialization.
• Managed P&L for the startup division – commercializing a newly-patented product following 10 years of research and development.
• Convinced 24 prospective customers to test new product in their deep draw presses by demonstrating an enhanced manufacturing process.

Greater Chicago Area

• Business turnaround situation.
• Engineered a business turnaround with P&L responsibility for $48M company, leading 150 staff.
• Returned the company to profitability in less than 18 months.
• Improved productivity 24%, decreased rejections by 50%, and reduced delivery expenses by 22%.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

• Business turnaround situation.
• Held P&L responsibility for a $25M flat-rolled steel distributor with a staff of 75 people.
• Revenue Growth: Dramatically changed the business strategy, increasing revenue.
• Safety Breakthrough: Reached 836 days without Lost Time injury by changing shop culture.
• Competitiveness: Retained the largest customer and increased sales to them by 20%.
• Quality Improvement: Decreased customer rejections by 85% to a low of 0.6% of shipments.

Chicago, IL

Business turnaround situation.· Improved overall profits at the operation, effectively ending a period of record losses.· Led strategic initiatives for six cross-functional teams resulting in business transformation.· Lowered inventory by 46%, converting $26M of illiquid, distressed assets into cash.

Chicago, IL

Corporate strategy on the CEO's staff.· Co-Authored strategic scenarios, “Project 007: A Twenty Year Look at the Future of the Industry.”· Designed and led a massive market research / segmentation strategy project, covering 10,000 buyers.· M&A Team for two global steel industry consolidation projects.

Mba, Concentrations In Strategic Planning, Operations, And Finance

Bachelor'S Degree, Industrial Engineering

Bachelor of Industrial and Systems Engineering. "Control the system; it controls the outcomes."