Manager Project

Simon Colwill Gray

** ***** *********, *********, ********** Penang 10450

Tel: 006********** (H) 006********** (M) E-Mail: *****@**********.***

Profile

An experienced individual with strong Manufacturing, Engineering, Quality and Solution

management skills. A good background in senior leadership has hands on experience of

start-up, turnaround and restructuring to assist in development of business. Talent for pro

actively identifying and resolving problems, reversing profit erosion, improving cost control,

maximizing productivity and ensuring quality. Deft facilitator with Asian systems. Currently

Chief Operating Officer for R&D and electronic manufacturing service provider to electronic

industry original equipment and design manufacturers.

CAREER HISTORY

Sept 08 – Present eLabs Sdn. Berhad (Malaysia)

Research and Development facility with plastic, metal and pcba manufacturing and integration

capabilities. Specialising in cost reduction, cost enhancement & design and development of new and

existing electronic products.

Sept’08 – Present : Chief Operating Officer

Responsibilities : providing operational leadership for revenue growth and continued profitability.

Driving the organization to attain key performance metrics centred on: on-time delivery, quality,

responsiveness, profitability, operational excellence and effective use of technology. Identifying

regional and global opportunities to increase manufacturing capacity while preserving overall

flexibility, anticipating and responding to global market demands and influences. Working with the

executive leadership team to define the strategic direction of the company, and ensure alignment to

company goals and values.

• Provide overall leadership to the Company, while working in close collaboration with the

Board of Directors and the Operations Management team

• Direct company operations to meet budget and other financial goals.

• Develops and executes the solution strategy and business plan to support the growth of the

solution offering.

• Evaluate and direct pricing.

• Establish and monitor performance goals and KPI’s, allocate resources, and assess policies

for senior management.

• Support and advise the senior management in decision making

• Develop, establish, and direct execution of operating policies to support overall company

policies and objectives.

• Direct and participate in acquisition and growth activities to support overall business

objectives and plans

• Establish and implement operational processes/ process improvement and quality assurance

• Lead the team and drive the architecture, build, testing, and ongoing development of the

products.

• Build the foundation for all development (set-up development and testing environments)

• Prepare, execute and maintain an operating plan to provide high quality parts consistent with

external customer’s demands and timing and to support company objectives.

• Actively reduce the cost of operations by reducing waste in all processes. Promote

productivity improvement / cost reduction through methods, process, and tooling

improvements and the procurement of necessary machinery and equipment.

• Responsibility for the alignment of operations and people behind the strategy to transform the

company's technology, oversight of product development, and innovation

• Develop solutions using internal / collaborative relationships providing customer cost

effective integrated products

• Coordinate the generation of specifications, drawings and designs.

• Managing and cascading ECN's through project team and certifying compliance.

• Responsible for cost estimation and project budgeting.

Founding member of a team responsible for creating eLabs, after identifying the need for a low cost,

fast response, flexible ODM to support large OEM, ODM and CM’s in the computer, peripheral and

consumer electronic industries. I have taken the company from concept to reality building and

developing a R&D lab, manufacturing and integration facilities while shaping and driving the new

management team into an efficient and productive unit.

Dec 01-Sept 08 Airspeed LLC / Airconnect Solutions Limited

Contract manufacturer of plastic injection moulding,metal stamping and cable extrusions with

turnover of $80 million USD and offices in Europe, Asia and the Americas as well as China

manufacturing facilities with over eight hundred personnel..

Jan’07 – Sept’ 08 : Managing Director - Asia Pacific

Responsibilities: Overseeing Asia Pacific majority owned facilities, liaising on behalf of the investors

with joint ventures and managing long term strategic suppliers with a view to enhancing collaboration

and providing a strong, efficient and flexible solution for customers.

• Full responsibility of P&L, providing analysis and advice to the shareholders as well as

direction to the senior management.

• Full operational control

• Creating strategic business plan for next phase of growth, reviewing trends in industry, market

intelligence and determining organisational development

• Leading Senior management team in it’s execution

• Project Director, Global programs, governing mechanical and electrical projects, ensuring

group integration and value add strategies.

• Driving Organic growth & leading pre/post M&A activity, developing the core product range

and nurturing product development - Guiding organisation through mergers, ensuring

controlled growth

• Working with shareholders, building strong relationships to achieve shared objective of wealth

creation

• Development of KPI’s – OEE, OTIF & PPM, setting objectives & targets, monitoring progress

and offering support and guidance

• Initiate, manage and encourage training and development of departmental teams (both

professional and personal growth)

• Driving continuous improvement program across all functional areas to develop business

model

• Developing plans, leading strategy and overseeing profit growth, ensuring the business plans

are prepared and implemented in line with the expectations of the shareholders

• Development of Supply Chain Activities, proactive procurement, strategic sourcing,

negotiation, contract management, supplier development and logistics providing total solution

from raw material purchase through factory and warehouse to end customer

I was head of a team responsible for the set up and management of manufacturing facilities we have

now established in mainland China and have ensured that they have enjoyed growth year on year to

meet our investors’ targets. As part of this I have initiated cost reduction exercises both from a

procurement and process standpoint. The Asia Pacific division is enjoying further development due to

targeted same customer industry benchmark exercises at my request.

.

Jul’04-Jan 07: Op Director – Asia Pacific (Hong Kong)

• Identifying opportunities, either through weaknesses in current organisation activities or new

technologies, and will look for potential partners. Upon conclusion, will asses for best possible

relationship and open dialogue to establish how to progress before reporting to main board

• Interact with group legal and financial team, & potential partners’ to negotiate the contractual

and investment agreement prior to Board of Director conclusion

• Oversee management and manufacturing teams on efficiency of production capacity and

flexibility

• Directing implementation of systems for repeatability, reliability and conformance to

customers’ requirements

• Instigate and asses new plant requirement feasibility studies - cost v’s return, review

Strategic Supply Alliance determining integration level (buy or make)

• Liaise with business unit managers, production facilities, sales & marketing,outside vendors,

international colleagues and customers do develop best practice strategic, tactical and

operational systems.

• Review P&L to close out any gaps between initial proposal and real time returns from an

operational standpoint

• Manage cross functional teams across multiple facilities to review BOM & RMS driving down

costs.

• Responsible for Asia Pacific headquarters and all teams within – Design, Engineering, Project

Management, Logistics, Finance, Sourcing, Procurement, Quality & multi site production

Operations

• Leading evaluation and appraisal of cost reduction exercises across divisions and facilities to

remain competitive

• Asia Pacific lead for Global Engineering and Design team meetings

• Final approval of all generation of requirements, sourcing, design, costing and quotations for

A-P region

• Manage supplier assessment, selection and development

• Development of Integrated supply strategy, reviewing supply risk, & develop data

management,

• Advise on service level / pricing negotiations, determine relationship and contract

management

• On advisory team to Sales & Marketing on new launch & existing products and technical and

strategic development of OEM/ODM customers

• Day to day leader in the geography reporting to company president, managing all divisions of

operations (with the exception of sales)

As Operations Director I was responsible for the systematic strategic coordination of flow of materials,

services and data from design to costing, prototyping to pre production builds and volume

manufacturing and onto end customer working across three manufacturing sites and multiple sub

contractors and component suppliers.

Jan’04 – Jul’04 New Project Development Manager (Hong Kong)

• Reviewing new organisations with a view to partnership or procurement to strengthen the

company’s new and existing requirements

• Working with organisations on new products and assisting in the development for general

release or integrating into existing products

• Developing new factories to meet our specifications

• Researching with educational institutes on leading edge technology and working with them to

design commercially viable products

• Sourcing and liaising with suppliers on existing products to reduce costs by design,

manufacture or material review

• Work with global sales team from technical view to assist in developing strategies

• Develop global project management tool to drive down costs and lead-times for quotations to

help organisation become more competitive

• Discover new organisations for sales which require technologies or solutions our company

and associated companies may be able to provide

• Promotion was achieved in such short space of time as key skills and necessary experience

and leadership were demonstrated to achieve the backing of the board to control one of three

organisational geographies

Dec’01 – Dec’03 Project Manager – Cable Division (North Carolina, U.S.A.)

• Liaising with OEM Global design and development to provide engineering and design support

on new projects

• Sourcing new suppliers for cables division. Review supplier strategy and ensure complete

supplier base for the target industry

• Responsible for supplier quality across all commodities (Plastics, metals & cables

• Manager, cable division. Team responsibility for design & development, sourcing & pricing.

• Existing supplier improvement

• New supplier improvement - Review and implement integration with global alliance

Other professional experience

Oct’00 – Dec’01 Sonnel International Electronics Limited, U.K., Glasgow, Scotland

Sub contract vendor with specialising in quick turn around repair/rework/ECN’s & small assembly

operations for OEM/ODM market

Mar’01 – Dec’01 Operations Director

• Responsible to for all functions within the organisation with the exception of finance for

strategic and day to day business. Responsible to the Managing Director for performance of

the UK Company. List of duties as per Production and Engineering Manager

Oct ’00 – Mar ‘01 Production & Engineering Manager

• Managing Quality department in producing, amending and controlling documentation

• Overall responsibility for ensuring all production targets were achieved

• Set-up, maintaining and manage continuous improvement

• Managing quotations and enquiries on behalf of company

• Direction of all junior managers, supervisors and engineers

• Responsible for creation of electronic document control system.

• Creation and maintenance of quality systems in all both plants (UK, USA)

• Managing quality, engineering and production based issues

• Assessment and justifications for board approval on capital expenditure.

• Leading, instructing and benchmarking internal operations

May ‘99 – Oct ’00 Tyco Electronics UK Ltd. (AMP) - Product Engineer (cable design)

Jan ’98 – May ’99 Tyco Electronics UK Ltd (AMP) (Connectors)- Principal Quality Engineer

Jun’97 – Dec ’97 Minebea Electronics UK Ltd (SMPS R&D) – Quality Engineer

Sep’95 – Jun’97 Mimtec Electronics Ltd. (CM for IBM) – Quality Engineer

Jun’95 – Sep ’95 Mimtec Electronics Ltd. – Quality Auditor

Mar’93 – Jun ’95 I.B.M. U.K. LTD. – Production Operator

EDUCATION & QUALIFICATIONS

1989- 1992 Glasgow Polytechnic

BSc Computer Aided Engineering

1983-1989 Kelvinside Academy, Glasgow

OTHER INFORMATION

D.O.B: 3rd September 1971

Nationality: British

Married with two children

Personal interests: Enjoy spending time with family and friends as well as keeping fit. Currently

learning kickboxing after retiring from rugby.

Contact this candidate