As Director of Operations, my focus expanded to all business areas of our company, including sales, HR and finance.My leadership in project execution continued to sharpen planning accuracy and ensured budget adherence, keeping operations in lockstep with financial reporting and control mechanisms. On the business development front, my active engagement with current and prospective sales ensures our activities support local and global company goals. I drive opportunities for collaboration and resource optimization to promote growth across the company.I act as a vital link between sales, business development, and operational readiness, facilitating capacity planning, resource management, and production in response to complex political dynamics and sensitive project requirements.In resource management, I oversee the talent lifecycle from hiring to termination, focusing on forecasting and aligning with global company values. I tackle the challenge of meeting growing resource demands, while staying aligned with the company’s financial goals and constraints. I am also dedicated to enhancing global collaboration, talent development, performance coaching, and team building.In Technical Sales, I lead cross-company collaboration workshops, conduct company visits, and manage quotations and engineering sales. My comprehensive approach to estimation, planning, and capacity monitoring ensures that our technical sales efforts are strategic, efficient, and operationally coherent.

In my dynamic role as Program and Operations Manager, I have applied my project management expertise to modernize our operational strategies. My adoption and refinement of the earned value method, aligned with PMI PMBOK standards, have fortified our dedication to data-driven, objective reporting. This commitment to transparency and accountability pervades every phase of our projects.With a vigilant approach to monitoring and controlling, coupled with meticulous capacity planning, I have transformed our cost collection practices. Such strategic oversight has markedly improved the quality of our projects, particularly in terms of cost efficiency and adherence to schedules, yielding substantial improvements across our project portfolio.Within the realm of operations, my guidance encompasses financial management, involving the optimizing of reporting processes. This methodology has not only streamlined our operations but has also enhanced visibility into the financial well-being and performance metrics of our various business segments.

As the Principal Mechanical Engineer at DSA, I was pivotal in pioneering and transforming our design and manufacturing practices. My role began with a clear goal of disrupting an aging supplier network with innovative design techniques, early adoption and application of additive manufacturing, pushing boundaries in rapid prototyping and championing a fully distributed, on-demand manufacturing system.I've mastered printing with materials ranging from rubbers to metals and engineering plastics, and my efforts have positioned DSA as a leader in producing innovative products. Starting as the first mechanical engineer, I've established our engineering office from the ground up. Over the past four years, I've hired, trained, and developed a robust team, now including two full-time mechanical engineers, fostering a culture of expertise and collaboration.My hands-on skills in advanced mechanical design, backed by FEA and generative design methods, allow me to approach complex engineering problems with a practical and effective design philosophy. My goal has always been to demystify complex concepts, ensuring simplicity in our problem-solving approaches.By adopting new tools early and continuously honing our skills, our team is not just keeping pace but setting the standard for the future of the industry.

As DSA Systems' EV start-up business in Southern California expanded, my focus shifted to program management. In this role, I became deeply involved in every facet of our operations. My responsibilities range from scouting sales opportunities and leading project contract negotiations to maintaining customer relations and managing resources. I ensure projects flow smoothly through our organization, keeping teams aligned and objectives clear.My contributions have been instrumental in refining our organizational processes. I became an eager student of PMI's Project Management Body of Knowledge including Agile methodologies. I introduced and integrated enterprise level PM tools into our organization as we modernized our business tools. Most notably, the effective and accurate capacity planning of resources within a portfolio of projects, lead to major efficiency gains for our operations.

With over 35 years of industry presence, DSA has established itself as a premier expert in crafting custom communication solutions tailored to vehicle electronics. DSA Systems represents the North American region for DSA, and is head quartered in Detroit, MI. DSA decided to open a satellite office in Southern California, and I joined that office in 2016. Our mission was to cater to the burgeoning customer base of electric vehicle startups, including Faraday Future and Karma Automotive. My role included technical sales, and project management. As project manager I managed a team of seven engineers.

I was responsible for delivering a wide range of mechanical building services related projects. From a technical point of view projects included HVAC systems, acoustics engineering, structural engineering, and BMS control. All these projects were related to upgrades to a fuel research and test facilities. As project engineer, my responsibilities started at budget approval, and ended at issuing certificates of completion. I managed tenders and supplier nominations, technical solutions and approvals, and all Environmental, Health and Safety related aspects of onsite work.

During a career break I apprenticed as a bread baker at the highly acclaimed Île de Païn Bakery in Knysna. My teacher was the 3rd generation, Austrian Master Baker Markus Farbinger. After successfully starting, growing and selling our own restaurant, I wanted to take the time to develop and explore a passion of mine, namely bread baking. I was the acting head baker for the final month of my time at the bakery, responsible for all aspects of the bread program. Besides learning to bake beautiful, rustic loaves in a gigantic wood fired oven, I also learned about fast paced time management and problem solving, maintaining quality products in an ever changing environment, principals of economy of movement, and having the mindset of striving for maximum efficiency in all aspects of the business. Most importantly, my mentor has found a deep sense of meaning and purpose in his work and practiced his craft with passion and diligence. This left a lasting impression on me.

During my time at Volkswagen of South Africa I enjoyed tremendous opportunity and exposure to international projects. I loved working with people from different cultures and the travelling was both inspiring and eye opening. Within a small dynamic team, my role as powertrain engineer continuously evolved. Senior Powertrain Engineer, 2009-2011: I was the engineering representative to a cross-departmental quality control task team. I was responsible for vehicle endurance management and chaired our international telephone conferences.Technical project leader, 2007-2008: I was the Lead engineer for a powertrain application project for VW India.Resident Powertrain Engineer, Germany in 2006, and China in 2005: I was the technical liaison on all Volkswagen South Africa Powertrain projects.Engine build Project Engineer, 2004-2006: I was responsible for planning, processing and reporting on over 150 hand built, fine measured engines per year.Engine Build Engineer, 2002-2004: I was tasked with developing new engine build facilities and systems for testing new and localised engine components. Some of these tasks were selecting special tools, developing fine measurement procedures, training personnel, logistics, inspection, and documentation.

Vovo Telo started as an independent, neighborhood bakery. I helped out for fun initially, but soon resigned from my engineering job to join this booming startup full time. We opened 2 more locations, and thereafter started a spin-off concept of which I had majority ownership of.The bakery side of the business was sold to an international brand house four years after startup. Our spin-off gourmet pizzeria remained independent and grew into another success story, with multiple locations. My partner and I sold to a private buyer two years later.In the words of Danny Meyer, the CEO of one of the world's most dynamic restaurant organizations. “…the restaurant business is one of the hardest businesses in the world. In order to succeed, you need to apply –simultaneously- exceptional skills in selecting real estate, negotiating, hiring, training, motivating, purchasing, budgeting, designing, manufacturing, cooking, tasting, pricing, selling, servicing, marketing, and hosting.”