Gary Walters Email & Phone Number

Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area

MTD Products is a privately held, global manufacturer of Outdoor Power Equipment for consumer and commercial markets employing 6,000 people in 20+ countries.Led the recently established Project Management Office and supported new product development project activities from Ideation to project Closure at the Corporate Headquarters. Provided developmental support to the project management teams at three other engineering sites in North America, Europe and Asia to standardize best practices across the organization. Collaborated with Product Marketing team to establish achievable product portfolio roadmaps to satisfy customer and most importantly consumer needs.Led a business transformation project called ‘Idea to Retire’ (I2R) to improve all aspects of the New Product Development process for the global engineering teams. Project Manager responsible for all aspects of the effort including process redesign, software implementation and a gradual roll-out to all business units. Comprehensive involvement in all activities for the effort including collaboration across departmental boundaries, preparing the organization for change and the development and delivery of training materials.Continued as leader and promoter of this effort and initiated additional continuous improvement activities in related areas to fine tune and further streamline project execution and improve efficiency.

Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area

Led new product development engineering and additional product support groups that supported the delivery of consumer products for the business. Managed projects for Drive Systems, Electrical Systems, Snow, Chore and Mower product lines. Led engineering teams during the development process to deliver innovative cost effective product solutions for consumers in a timely manner.Active participant in the development and management of the R&D budget and collaborated across the organization as Lean principles were applied in the corporate office environment.

Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area

VP of Quality providing leadership for the corporate Quality team to develop an improved quality strategy for the organization. Traveled to all global manufacturing sites to examine the current state, assess personnel, and strengthen the quality roadmap.Nurtured and improved the line of communication with the project teams, operations and related business groups. Improved the process by having corporate Quality Engineers engaged very early to new product development projects with a clear line of sight to project requirements, needs on the production line and consumer satisfaction.

Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area

Managed groups that supported the delivery of finished goods to the business and new product development activities.Groups included business activities related to Packaging, Labels, Manuals and Configuration Management and technical activities related to the CAD Support, Design Verification, Reliability and Testing.Continued the expanded use of the existing Product Data Management system by migrating to Teamcenter and initiated plans to expand this to all engineering sites. Collaborated with software supplier and internal IT support group to develop an implementation plan.

Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area

Established a Design Verification, Reliability and Testing group to support the new product development engineering activities.Led efforts for the group's progression to perform increasingly more complex computer simulation analysis and testing of outdoor power equipment. Simulations began with classical structural and thermal finite element analysis and have progressed to non-linear metal stamping simulations, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and complex fluid-particle interaction solutions.Validation of analytics with field and laboratory testing activities, failure investigations, etc. has steadily improved design life and ultimately customer satisfaction. Warranty data analysis was used to assess product reliability and continues to be monitored to identify opportunities for improvement.

Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area

Project Manager for Zero Gravity Space Experiment projects for Space Shuttle and future Space Station missions. Managed a team that developed the mechanical and electrical equipment, software and training materials for the mission.Collaborated with NASA Glenn engineering teams and scientists during development and ground support personnel during flight missions. Performed preflight and laboratory testing of equipment and supported astronaut ground training. Presented before local peer and interagency design management reviews Active participant for in-house proposal development activities to respond to the NASA Glenn’s Request for Proposal to support local R&D activities. Provided input on the topics of engineering and project management support for the contracted period. Supported two successful contract proposals to NASA Glenn over a 3 year period.

Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area

Performed structural analysis of components and assemblies for Space Experiments, Space Station and Wind Tunnel testing projects. Computer simulations of complex finite element models were developed and integrated with NASA Glenn engineering teams to support space and advanced propulsion R&D efforts. Developed improved designs as needed and additional engineering activities included working with local suppliers to fabricate prototypes and test specimens.Presented progress and results before local peer and interagency technical design reviews.

Master'S Degree, Civil Engineering, Structural Mechanics Emphasis

Bachelor'S Degree, Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering Emphasis

Activities and Societies: Engineering Honor Society, Tau Beta Pi