A "car guy" from my earliest days of standing on the front porch of my childhood home, naming off the cars that passed by on the street. Loving cars is one thing, but I found that I was different from other "car" people, as I was interested in the industry and business that birthed the products, would spend time trying to understand their strategies, and would hypothesize about OEMs next steps.This early interest has driven me throughout my over twenty-year career. I have had great opportunities to be part of different aspects in product development and marketing: starting out as a CAD (Computer-Aided-Design) designer and educator, working at an advertising agency and supporting an automotive company and the marketing account, and researching, planning and implementing product and corporate strategies at major automotive OEMs. In my nearly 11 year career at Honda I was promoted 4 times in 7 years and was able to drive the product planning team to improve products (Honda Civic) and build up the capabilities of 6 departments across 26 team members. Leaving Honda was never in the cards, until the opportunity arose to build an all-new product planning and research team from scratch that wanted to build the "right" products to enter the U.S. market. This new opportunity has led me to become the the highest-ranking American executive, and I have been directing our strategies and initiatives to bring new products that will meet the needs of customers and provide the best sales success.Core competencies include:Strategic Business Planning ◦ Team and Organization Building ◦ Cross-Functional Team Supervision ◦ Comprehensive Budget Administration ◦ Cost Reduction ◦ Profit Optimization ◦ Product Concept Creation ◦ Product Positioning ◦ Lifecycle strategy ◦ Custom Research ◦ Marketing Planning ◦ Project Timeline Management ◦ Sales and Volume Forecasting