Rick Hersom

** ******** **** 508-***-****

Auburn, Massachusetts 01501 acs9jn@r.postjobfree.com

EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT

Full P&L, Business Development/Sales, Operations, Strategic Planning/Implementation

Industrial Supply, Contract Manufacturing, and Life Sciences

Senior executive with a successful track record of leading underperforming companies to new levels in top-line and bottom-line growth. Especially strong in market opportunity assessment and developing and executing product expansion and optimization strategies. Proven as a leader who can prepare organizations for rapid growth through hands-on work with sales, supply chain, operations, quality, and SG&A infrastructure. Demonstrated ability to build and empower strong teams reaping optimum results under challenging conditions.

CORE COMPETENCIES

Leadership

Market Assessment

Product Mix Strategy

Sales

Negotiating: contracts, pricing, etc.

Financing

Change Management

Acquisition Integration

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

121 DOUGLASS ASSOCIATES - Sutton, MA 2008 - Present

Co-founded and help manage a limited portfolio of local/regional business start-ups in the retail, sporting, and hospitality spaces. Provide guidance on finance, operations, sales, marketing, and customer service.

ISOLATION TECHNOLOGIES - Hopedale, MA 1991 – 2007

Rebranded and re-positioned Royal Machine Company to Isolation Technologies as an emerging player in the high-growth market of chromatography hardware space. Led the privately held organization to grow to $14M in revenue and to its eventual sale to IDEX Corporation.

President (1991 - 2007)

Oversaw the organization’s gradual transition from a generalist contract manufacturer to one of the most respected and successful HPLC hardware players in the global market.

Instituted new programs, strategies, and organizational development efforts that helped increased revenue over 150% and grew gross margin to 45%.

Drove a Theory of Constraints initiative that yielded a 92% increase in sales per man hours and a similar yield on gross margin.

Grew customer base to include over 60 customers in the global chromatography/life sciences market.

Expanded share and capability through the successful acquisition and integration strategies.

Invested in new Sales and Product Development assets leading to several successful new product introductions and increased share.

Improved and expanded market offerings, growing total SKUs from 100 to over 10,000

Doubled the size of the organization and oversaw the successful relocation into a 14,000 SF operations center which grew to 28,000 SF. Special focus placed on developing design, prototyping, and production capabilities to meet the needs of High Performance Liquid Chromatography markets.

ROYAL MACHINE COMPANY - Hopedale, MA 1987 - 1991

Privately held contract manufacturing business serving the semiconductor, life sciences, and medical device industries. During tenure, organization grew from $650K to $5.5M in revenue.

General Manager (1988 - 1991)

With sales and margin stabilized, promoted to GM to continue sales trajectory and prepare the organization for increased sales, throughput, and job complexity.

Established new departments and improved talent levels in existing functional areas across HR, IT, Accounting, Internal Sales, Customer Service, production, quality, shipping, logistics, and materials management.

Revamped market approach focusing on clients that require tight tolerance manufacturing capabilities.

Hired an external sales specialist to focus on new growth markets.

Special focus placed on developing design, prototyping, and production capabilities to meet the needs of High Performance Liquid Chromatography markets.

Increase revenue to $5.5M with an average margin of 32% per account.

VP of Sales (1986 - 1988)

Hired to help the struggling organization improve its revenue position by analyzing market opportunities and optimizing the client base and job mix. Inherited a sales operation that was running a loss of $130K on $650K in annual revenue.

Doubled the size of the client base.

Increased overall sales volume to $2.2M

Turned a profit of $350K in 16 months

STANFAST INC. - Worcester, MA 1979 – 1986

Regional fastener and industrial products company serving the New England and Mid-Atlantic markets.

General Manager/President (1981 - 1986)

Purchased the business and transformed the product mix, go-to-market strategy, and delivery infrastructure. Ultimately grew the business over 25X its original size when joined.

Introduced value-added selling model to outmaneuver competition and grow share.

Optimized product mix to offer bundled solutions and “one-stop” shopping

Grew 600 catalog items up to 10,000 SKUs

Moved to digital catalog platform to help manage growing SKU complexity

Expanded employee base to help sell and support new levels of business

Grew revenues to >$4M before selling the business in 1986.

Director (1979 - 1981)

Hired to run the operations for this small distribution organization.

Grew revenue from $150K to over $1M in less than 24 months

Increased margin from less than 19% to 34%

Redesigned field sales strategy and hired in new territory account representatives.

Transitioned company to a new inventory and material ordering system

ROBERT E. MORRIS COMPANY, (Hartford, CT) 1977 - 1979

A privately held supplier of machine tools and tooling supplies serving manufacturing companies across the Northeast.

Field Sales Engineer

Strategic planning to achieve volume and margin objectives for a $20 million territory.

Grew region revenue by 38% and account base by 14 new accounts.

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