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Algonquin, IL ***** Nicholas G. Athanailos

http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/NickAthanailos

yssg9h@r.postjobfree.com

Mobile: 847-***-****

PROFILE

Product Engineering leader with expertise in Project Management and Quality. Experienced in full cycle of product development in manufacturing organizations. Demonstrated success in building high performance teams, motivating associates and working with cross functional global groups to meet company goals.

• Global Product Development Management

• Project / Program Management (PMBOK)

• Regulatory / Environmental Compliance

• Risk Assessment & Management • Process, Cost Reduction & Productivity Improvement

• Lean / Six Sigma / ISO / QS Implementation

• Strategic Customer & Supplier Relations

• Cross Functional Leadership / Team Building

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

LAWSON PRODUCTS INC., Chicago, Illinois 2009 – 07/2012

$650MM manufacturer and distributor of 80,000+ specialty products to industrial, institutional and government MRO markets.

Director, Product Engineering

Reporting to the Senior Director of Product Management & Product Development, accountable for Engineering Road Map, strategy, and establishment of processes to support sales and product quality. Lead Engineering team of nine and Regulatory Affairs team of five responsible for technical specifications and regulatory compliance for new product introductions, product modifications, verification, validation, specifications, state registrations and reporting.

• Managed, prioritized, facilitated and coordinated continuous improvement initiatives that streamlined new product testing, review, approval, introduction processes and reduced overall time to market by 50% (from 30 to 15 days).

• Ensured regulatory compliance, report filing and data submissions with all Federal, State, Provincial and local laws governing the manufacturing/storage/sales of products. Supported, reviewed and approved sales and promotional related material, literature and tools for compliance with local and global regulations.

• Communicated with customers to resolve technical product issues and recommend approaches for product applications.

• Designed and maintained continuously improving integrated design of governance for corporate Quality System.

CHAMBERLAIN, INC. – DUCHOSSOIS INDUSTRIES, Elmhurst, Illinois 2007 - 2009

$750MM manufacturer of garage door openers, gate operators, telephone and access entry systems.

Project Manager

Led cross-functional product development teams responsible for weekly communication updates to executive management team by Project Management Office (PMO) utilizing PMBOK. Managed new product development, established program strategy, project goals, schedules and budgets. Hired, developed and managed team of five engineers and eight new product development (NPD) support staff focused on product safety, quality, delivery, cost and innovation. Established appropriate linkages of information for project and product portfolio prioritization based on data.

• Improved on time delivery of projects in 2007 from 50% to 77%, exceeded goal of 55%.

• Maximized business results through continuous improvement in organization’s ability to execute programs from ideation to manufacturing via Project Definition (TG2-Kaizen) and Accelerated Product Development (APD) Kaizen events that achieved 27% savings ($513K on $1.9MM budget).

• Implemented Risk Management process at program level that assured 90% of projects completion within timeline.

KAVO TECHNOLOGIES - GENDEX DENTAL IMAGING / DANAHER, Des Plaines, Illinois 2002 - 2007

$150MM division of a $12B public company, manufacturing of state of the art Dental x-ray and Digital Imaging products.

Director of Engineering & Program Management (2005 - 2007)

Planned, estimated, tracked, and reported to division Presidents on $9.8MM engineering budget for development of medical devices, X-ray, panoramic and digital imaging dental products. Managed regulatory and compliance activities (FDA, UL, CSA, VDE & TUV), audits, approvals, inspections and all post audit commitments globally.

• Improved Vitality Index in 2005 from 41.7% to 52.8% and from 55% to 61.7% in 2006.

• Exceeded target goals by utilizing Lean New Product Development techniques and reorganizing development team into process-oriented structure with separate requirements generation, architecture and design, implementation, and configuration management groups to provide opportunities for parallel development and increased productivity.

Project Manager (2002 - 2005)

Formed, chaired, and participated in cross-functional senior management operations reviews of project milestone status, costs, and risks to provide executive oversight of strategic product direction. Change agent for the DBS product development tools.

• Managed resource utilization that achieved 10.5% resource allocation savings, exceeded goal of 7%.

• Created subordinate project management teams for each project achieving consistent inter-departmental representation, efficient reporting mechanisms of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and well-defined issue escalation paths, Counter-Measures.

• Designed weekly development status report to facilitate clear and concise communication between global cross-functional New Product Development (NPD) teams, senior management and Project Planning Group (PPG).

ENERGY SAVINGS, INC., Schaumburg, Illinois 2001 - 2002

$45MM manufacturer of electronic / microprocessor based ballast.

Manager of Regulatory, ISO-9001 and Documentation

Established, conducted, prepared and submitted all regulatory test and reports. Obtained all new product approvals from Underwriters Laboratories - UL, Canadian Standard Association – CSA, TUV & VDE. Managed Internal and Surveillance Quality System audits, ISO-9001.

SIGMATRON INTERNATIONAL, INC., Elk Grove Village, Illinois 1996 - 2001

$130MM manufacturer of PTH and SMT printed circuit board assemblies, PC Boards

Director of Regulatory & Quality Assurance (1999 - 2001)

Coordinated, managed the implementation and certification of ISO 9002:94 for three facilities by establishing Document and Data Control Standards and processes. Developed supplier evaluation, CPAP qualification and approval process and managed Regulatory compliance activities.

Prototype Manager (1996 - 1998)

Established prototype and short run capabilities department to help customers meet the challenges of accelerating new product development, prototype builds and short production runs. Developed and administered new training programs that helped reduced manufacturing costs by $75K-$100K.

MARTINEZ MANUFACTURING, Inc., Barrington, Illinois 1995 - 1996

$10MM manufacturer of wire, cable and electromechanical assemblies (Motorola)

Project Manager

SUN ELECTRIC / SNAP-ON CORPORATION, Crystal Lake, Illinois 1981-1995

$2.2B manufacturer of automotive diagnostic test equipment

Project Engineer (1988 - 1995), Engineering Project Coordinator (1986 - 1988), Associate Engineer (1984 - 1986), Engineering Specialist (1982 - 1984), Senior Engineering Technician (1981 - 1982)

EDUCATION & ADDITIONAL TRAINING & CERTIFICATIONS

Bachelor Electronic Engineering – 3.80 / 4.00

Democritos Institute of Electronics, Salonica, Greece Associates Degree in Electronics – 3.86 / 4.00

DeVry Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois

• Master Black Belts (MBB) in:

Accelerated Product Development (APD)

Transactional Process Improvement (TPI)

Visual management & 5S

• Project Management Technical Seminar

• Certified ISO 9000 Lead Internal Auditor

• Making the Transition to ISO 9000:2000 Seminar

• Certified Auditor to UL 935 Standard • Danaher Material Process (DMP)

• Value Stream Mapping (VSM)

• TG2- Kaizen (Project Definition Kaizen)

• Variation Reduction Kaizen (VRK)

• Root Cause and Counter Measures (RCCM)

• Problem Solving and Continuous Improvement Seminar

• ISO 9000 Executive Management Overview training

• Structuring Effective Quality Systems, Technical Seminar

• N-Spec Users Advanced Training Seminar, AOI

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