Director of Sales

Gregory J. Jager

**** ****** ****

Oxford, MI ***71

Cell: 248-***-****

*******@*****.***

Objective Senior Management Position in Sales

Work Experience May ’09 – Present Jager Sales, LLC

• Tradeshow Marketing

• Manufacturer’s Representative for automotive products

Oct ‘87 – Apr ‘09 Dura Automotive Systems Rochester Hills, MI

• 80% of Senior Management released prior to sale of company

May ‘07 – Apr ’09 Director of Business Development – Non Auto

• Given responsibility to grow non-automotive business in Agriculture, Heavy Truck and Mass Transit markets. Successfully grew control cable business by 50% with John Deere awarding Dura status as a “Partner Supplier”. Created strategy to launch cable plant in China for new John Deere programs while maintaining business level and margins in the German Plant

• Participated in a sales strategy development for Heavy Truck products

• Took over commercial responsibility for Mass Transit window business, created a strategic growth business plan and brought in opportunities with current and multiple new customers in the Bus and Rail industries providing potential growth of over 60%.

July ‘05 - May ‘07: Global Director of Business Development – General Motors

• Coordinated global quotes, development of new business opportunities and led Management negotiations for Productivity Improvements, Long Term Agreements and major issues resolution. Supported new product development, improved quality targets, service pricing and production pricing initiatives.

• In February of 2005, Dura Automotive Systems, Inc was removed from GM’s bid list. Tasked with finding a way to resolve commercial issues and to return Dura to an aligned supplier with GM worldwide. In January of 2006, successfully negotiated past issues and Dura was returned to being a supplier in good standing at GM.

• After returning to the bid list, quoted over $100 mil. in new business.

2002 – 2005: Director of Sales for Dura’s Body and Glass Division in N.A.

• Successfully led the Body and Glass division in meeting a 25% sales goal for Tier One.

• Successfully lead a team through licensing and commercialization of new “RackLift” window lift technology. Marketing plans were put into place and the first contract was received at a major OEM. This new product was presented at two sessions of the SAE forum in 2004 where I was awarded the SAE “Excellence in Presentation” award. Was a guest speaker at the Plastics Encounter Spring Meetings in 2004 at Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2005 won the Automotive News “PACE” award.

• Another significant success was in introducing and being awarded contracts the first Flush-Mounted Power Rear Sliding Window for pickup trucks. This is now in production on the Ford F150 and Dodge Ram vehicles.

1999 – 2002 After Dura’s Acquisition of Excel Industries, Inc, Promoted to Director of Operations for Dura’s Body Components Division in North America

• Duties included full P&L Responsibilities, Adv and Current Product Engineering, Research and Development and New Business Planning for three manufacturing facilities in Pikeville, TN, Jacksonville, FL and Queretaro, Mx. Annual Strategic Plans were developed. During this time a division Technical Center was built and fully staffed. The new Racklift window lift system was taken from concept to production-ready status. Three very unique challenges were addressed and brought to successful resolution. Each plant had significant challenges that are addressed below.

• Pikeville, TN. Annual Sales of $140 mil. Upon taking this plant over, it was discovered that the finance and management team were improperly reporting income to meet their P&L goals. The Plant Manager, Plant Controller, Accounting Supervisor and HR Manager were all replaced with outstanding managers. Over $4 million dollars of accounting irregularities were corrected and the plant was brought back to having the highest efficiency levels and most productive cost per hour within the Dura Operations group in the US. During this time, Dura undertook new Kaizen practices and had the 2nd Blackbelt within Dura certified.

• Jacksonville, FL. Annual Sales of $60 mil. Due to a transition away from technologies that were becoming obsolete, the plant was scaled down to a bare-boned operation and remained profitable when reduced to less than $20 mil. in annual sales. The staff and plant performed well enough that Dura replaced the aging products with other core products and grew the plant back to over $50 mil. in sales. The Kaizen and Blackbelt training also resulted in having a candidate certified as a Blackbelt.

• Queretaro, MX. Annual Sales $20 mil. The most dramatic challenge was in uncovering a corrupt management team and replacing nearly the whole staff here also. Anonymous emails were received from the plant indicating that illegal activities were going on. A Private Investigation firm was hired to conduct an investigation. It was determined that the allegations were true. After confronting the Plant Manager was challenged and unwilling to work towards clearing his name, the top 4 managers were dismissed and I took over the plant a 30 – 45 day period while a new management team was hired an put in place. This plant also won new business taking it to over $50 mil. in annual sales.

1997 to 1999 Excel Industries, Inc. Plant Manager - PVC Glass Encapsulation Plant in KY

• Annual Sales of $58 mil. with over 500 employees. Duties included full P&L responsibility for this plant. I was hired to be the new Plant Manager one week after the manufacturing plant voted for representation by the UAW,. This plant had been led by an ineffective manager and worker relations had deteriorated to the point that they successfully sought to be unionized. They were also involved in a failing launch of the first PVC rear sliding window in the industry. The functional managers were not working together and the OEM was fearful that their launch of the Ram Pickup truck would be delayed by a bad new product launch.

• The first 6 months were split between recovering from bad design and process planning and negotiation the plants first union contract. In the end of the negotiations, a workable contract was signed that gave a net increase of 2.7% and eliminated a paid lunch hour that had been in place since the mid 80’s. In the year following 4 grievances were forced to binding arbitration and all 4 were successfully ruled in favor of the company.

• A new plant engineering manager was hired to address the launch issues and I worked personally with the functional managers to form an effective team to address the significant challenges ahead of them. Disastrous scrap levels caused $500 - $700k in loss monthly. Within one year the scrap levels were reduced to 1 ½ to 2% which is better than industry standards for encapsulated glass products.

• Other challenges were higher than expected volumes from the OEM that were solved by instituting a 7 day three crew operating pattern to avoid extreme overtime. Technical developments were also made in becoming the first low durometer PVC encapsulator to implement gas assist molding.

1994 to 1997 Director of Sales at Excel Industries

• Led Team to increase sales from $500 to $800 million in annual sales

1992 – 1994 Sales Manager for Excel Industries

 In charge of all sales account executives at the corporate office.

1990 – 1992 Engineering Manager for Excel’s Corporate Office

• Responsible for all non- North American OEM’s. Worked and travel extensively to Mazda and Nissan in Japan. Successfully acquired and developed encapsulated window programs.

1987 – 1992 Corporate Project Manager for encapsulated products

Managed the design and program management for multiple programs with Ford, Mazda and Nissan. Traveled monthly to Mazda in Japan for technical meetings and followed programs from sourcing to launch.

1984 – 1987 Ford Motor Company Glass Division Hdqtr's in Detroit, MI

• Hired by Ford Motor Company to lead the engineering, equipment and process side of a new technology to encapsulate rear quarter windows for the 1st Taurus and Sable vehicles. Also selected a plant site, developed the materials, developed material delivery systems, developed tooling and press methods and hired a management team for the new Fulton KY company named Modular Concepts. Launched rear quarter windows on the Ford and Mercury Taurus and Sable sedan and station wagon. Personally developed the method of molding RIM on glass and for in-molding stainless steel decorative trim . Shortly after launch, Excel Industries negotiated a deal with Ford to take over their encapsulation plant and I was requested to transfer from Ford to Excel Industries.

Education Pursued BA Degree in Business Administration at Oakland Community College

 Successfully completed a 4 year apprenticeship in Mechanical Design

 Attended classes at DCB and Davenport

 Fluent user of MS Word, Excel and Power Point.

 Ongoing Training includes: Lean Manufacturing, Kaizen, Notre Dame Exec Course, GD&T, and others.

References Available upon request

Contact this candidate