-Responsible for developing and delivering the 10 year technology and product roadmaps-Seek and sign partnership agreements to strengthen product development capabilities & results-Secure investment and development funding from VCs, private investors & gov't funding vehicles-Instill Front End of Innovation best practices to sharpen data-driven decision making -Ambassador and thought leader to the respiratory protection community as a 20+ year technical SME

Caintech, LLC is a consultancy providing the following: - Fractional CTO services as a multifaceted tech executive utilized in a part time role to save on costs - Tech scouting, innovation management, and strategy development leadership - Technology roadmap creation to align with business objectives, capital allocation, & ROI expectations - Decades of experience in highly regulated markets such as respiratory & personal protective equipment for defense, fire, industrial & law enforcement. - Core competency in proposal writing & planning for SBIR, OTA and other RIF initiated funding. - Skilled at building and implementing Front End of Innovation (FEI) tools & processes to aid companies in achieving sustainable innovation across any market.

Responsible for building a new department within the business to evaluate and incubate technologies beyond our core product horizons. Creation & daily management of the Futures groupDevelopment of the expectations, metrics, taxonomy, ecosystem and processes necessary for a classic product development and manufacturing corporation to embrace exploratory efforts on the front end of innovation Technology Roadmaps – responsible for creating image-centric product roadmaps with layered enabling technologies to share the vision in all 8 product categoriesWinning government funded programs to deliver complex solutions for critical user needs

Champion for enterprise-wide product development process and educating each department on their responsibilities for this process. Keep the product development process current (Ideation thru Post-Launch) and in line with best practice.Responsible for peer reviews of product development programs globally.Operate as a subject matter expert on Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA)Liaison between Business Development and Product Development to correctly evaluate and advise on potential new partnerships, technologies, and acquisitions.Attend innovation events and implement relevant ideas to ensure the company is infused with state-of-the-art ideas and practices.Core team member for acquisition advisement and due diligence.Assisted with the closure of one company site and moving the manufacturing, engineering and lab capabilities to two separate company sites in North America.

Directly responsible for the daily direction and strategic planning for in-house engineering department, outside consultancy team, regulatory approvals, and documentation department to provide products including SCBA and thermal imaging cameras to the fire service. Direct oversight of regulatory approvals through agencies and standards including National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL), Intrinsic Safety (IS), Safety Equipment Institute (SEI), CE standards including several country specific regulations.Received New Product Development Professional – NPDP certification in order to begin teaching best practice within the organization for product development. This led to the global development and successful implementation of a custom product development process tailored for our business. Hatched the idea for the next generation Deltair® SCBA and oversaw the 3 year development of this product line. Scaled up the in-house product development team and added outside partnerships to design areas of the system noncore to the in-house team. The Deltair® SCBA won an International Design of Excellence Award (IDEA) in 2014 presented by the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA). The IDEA was the only Gold awarded in the Research category and was awarded due to the nature of the insight gained by several immersions into the life of a firefighter across the continent.The Deltair SCBA won the People’s Choice Award 2014 presented by IDSA. This award is the most coveted in the industry as it is given to the best overall design of all products designed each year and is voted on by designers around the world. The Deltair beat out over 2,000 other new products by companies such as Samsung, Yakima, Nike, Tesla, Apple, BMW amongst many others.1 of 9 industry experts sitting as a primary member of NFPA Technical Committees covering Respiratory Protection Equipment.

A new role to the company to create a more solid division between current product support and new product development. Led a small team to begin developing processes for product development. Identified the need for program managers and product managers within the business and restructured accordingly to accommodate this reorganization.Promoted to Engineering Manager

Designed components for all major subsystems of the SCBA including facepieces, EOSTI, cylinder valves, 1st stage pressure reducers, demand valves, speech diaphragms, backframe & harnesses, pressure gauges, high pressure hose assemblies. Other areas of past designs include thermal imaging cameras, electromechanical enclosures, battery packs, and emergency escape devices. Some examples of my designs include:A hooded “two-sizes-fit-all” facepiece for industrial respiratory protection utilizing a positive pressure demand valve system instead of the typical constant flow devices. The system eliminates wasted air and matches the delivery of air with the user’s need.A breathing apparatus utilizing new material blends to successfully pass the 2002 NIOSH and fire fighting NFPA requirements to protect against challenges from Chemical, Biological, Radiological, & Nuclear (CBRN) events. We were the only manufacturer to pass this rigorous testing on the first attempt.A passive shock absorbing system to protect a fire fighting thermal imaging camera against a 10’ drop onto concrete in any orientation.The rugged electronics enclosures for the ISI Z7 to pass the stringent NFPA 1981 heat and immersion test. The only SCBA manufacturer to produce electronics without potting assemblies to pass NFPA 1981.A battery pack system which replaced 14 AA size batteries with only 4 C cell batteries while increasing the average time between battery change outs by over 300%.CAD user of Pro/E and Wildfire of more than 6,000 hours including Intralink for data management. Promoted to New Product Development Manager