User-centered Design leader for Consumer and Commercial Industries.Works directly with senior leaders from design, marketing, engineering and consumer insights to help the organization develop meaningful innovation and grow the business.Manages a team of industrial designers to lead initiatives and represent the voice of design with our internal stakeholders.Implements design strategy, develop and share best practices and continually improve the design capabilities within the business.

Managed a team consisting of Creative Directors and Industrial Designers to create product designs according to client needs.Maintained weekly resource loading in order to work with management on pipeline for new project proposals to the business.Conducted work reviews (CAD/sketching/presentations) to constantly calibrate the deliverables to the expectations of the client, guiding designers of all levels through technical and creative issues with the designs to provide a highly consistent level for the work.Nurtured client relationships with frequent touchpoints in order to ensure high confidence in the firm and the work being done.Responsible for hours and costs for each project in order to ensure the highest profitability as possible. Used the Wrike Project Management software to execute and track all project activities.

Image360 - Raleigh Midtown provides professional graphic solutions to national, regional and local businesses and organizations. From the simplest projects to the most complex, our graphic designers will work closely with you or your clients to maximize the creativity and visual impact of environmental graphics, mobile graphics, way-finding solutions and promotional displays.http://www.image360.com/raleighmidtownnc/

Lead Design (Industrial Design and Creative Services), Channel Marketing, Trade Shows and Events teams with 6 direct reports and 25 total team members.While at Generac, I was deeply involved in the launch of the new GPS (Generac Product System) toll-gate launch system. My role/purpose was to ensure involvement of the Marketing team into the front end of the development process which was lacking prior to my arrival. After launching and training the new system, Marketing was an integral part of the creation of assets which helped drive commitment in the innovation process and product lensing/scoping in order to maintain a common thread of consistency between product innovations, brand, and launch message.Additionally, I conducted quarterly reviews with Product Planning, Engineering, Design, and Marketing in order to cover our major initiatives and generation plans in order to provide complete transparency across the functions. This benefited all of the teams involved as we could prepare and organize to the same priorities across groups and head off conflicts as a team when it came to resources and schedules.

09/2014 - 09/2016Manager over Fabric-Care, Dish-care, and 'Shared studio teams' in design organization consisted of the following groups; UI/UX Design, Product Graphics, VR/Visualizations, Model Making and Model Shop Facility planning, Color/Material/Finishes. Total group consisted of 7 direct reports, 13 total team members.Implemented and administered WorkFront Work Management Software for live dashboard of project requests, updates, and statuses (utilizing both Agile + Waterfall team methodologiesy). Built custom curriculums based on role in the system and group. Trained entire design staff (30-40 users), ensuring successful adoption of new system. Conducted post-launch sessions based on staff knowledge and requests for enhancements to the workflows which enabled continuous improvement to the system.This system is gaining traction as a best-practice within Electrolux globally, converting 5 outside teams to its use and growing the user base from 40 to 250+ users in the first 18 months since implementation within the Design Group.07/2011 - 09/2014Lead the Floor Care, Small Kitchen Appliance Design, and Creative Services teams based in North America. This total group consisted of 10 team members.With my leadership, we launched the new era of Eureka Airspeed Vacuums into the market. Tight collaboration between R&D and Design was critical to fix the first generation product cost issues to make the overall business more profitable. The outcome of the product launches resulted in 3 new products in the line with multiple SKU variants for retail channel management, these products increased cost margins from 15-20% depending on the variation.

Lead Designer and Key Accounts team member with Sales and Marketing on Strategic Accounts. Attended customer meetings (Sears, Lowes, Home Depot, Dealers, etc.) as liaison for the rest of the design organization to communicate and present concepts. Partnered with customers’ design teams in order to develop brands together for mutual benefit between the organizations. Negotiated designs in order to maintain proper differentiation between multiple brands and still provide values to the consumer that resonated with customers’ marketing tactics.Working with Global Design leaders at Electrolux, built a global platform for career-pathing design roles at Electrolux. This system put in place gives team members clarity on their role and progression through the organization from a operational and developmental aspect. The system also allowed for ranking and grading of members across regions in order to have a balanced design organization that could share assets on projects due to consistent measurement of performance globally.

People Leadership• Led a team of 5 designers to coordinate projects and efforts for the “Food Preparation” (Cooking) category of products. (+300 sku category)• Acted as Industrial Design liaison to Key Accounts (Sears/Lowes/IKEA/etc), in order to balance the manufacturing needs with the Customer expectations for the end product design for specially branded product offerings (Kenmore, Kenmore Elite, Kenmore PRO, etc.)Design AccomplishmentsPrincipal Designer for the Kenmore PRO brand of products in 2006.Principal Designer for the Electrolux ICON Professional brand of products in 2004/2005.Lead Designer on the launch of Electrolux branded cooking appliances in North America in 2004.

Creativity• Provided creative input and solutions that contributed to the success of Electrolux, Frigidaire, and Kenmore Brands.• Implemented Brand Design values (Brand and Product identity).• Interpret and apply new technologies to product designs.• Converted marketing/product guidelines into product designs.• Participated in concept development.Customer Focus• Strived for best-in class design solutions that met or exceeded the needs of internal and external customers/consumers.• Incorporated human factors’ engineering and exterior product aesthetics into product’s functional requirements and mechanics.Problem Solving• Balanced the relationship between product properties, design elements, business goals, marketing directions, engineering pre-requisites, consumer trends, technology and environmental issues.• Met internal and external deadlines according to project planning. • Ensured constant high quality of the design output.Design Accomplishments• Successfully helped with the launch of the Frigidaire Brand refresh of products into North America.• Successfully helped with the launch of the Kenmore Brand refresh of products into North America.• Successfully helped bring the Electrolux ICON products into North America.

During my brief time at Brinly Hardy, I worked in the R&D dept. as a multifunctional member.Accomplishments during the two-year duration consisted of the following large projects;Successful Implementation of SolidEdge CAD modeling system into the company.• This consisted of training the staff to use the software, and created all of the templates necessary in order for a seamless transition from the old hand-drawn system in place at the time.• Conversion of all legacy hand drawings (hundreds of parts files) into the electronic system. This meant modeling geometry to spec, then creating drawing files to accompany the model for the factory.• Creation of all parts, sub-assemblies, and main assemblies of the portfolio of products in the company while the staff came up to speed on using the software to create new products.• Consolidation like parts in the system throughout the process to run a leaner part inventory.Successful migration of Assembly Manuals from being hand drawn created electronically.• Created a template system that is still in operation for manuals to be generated right out of the CAD system in order to maintain up-to-date imagery and exploded views to ensure good consumer understanding.• BOM integration ensured better accuracy on the documentation so replacement part numbers were correct cutting down on Manual inaccuracy/revisions.Production Facility Laser Cutter programming process• During my stay at Brinly the factory purchased a laser for production. I was the primary point of contact for programming of this equipment to match production scheduling.• This process was documented, and transitioned to a technician prior to my departure.