Consultants:

Jeff Barris:
Jeff Barris is a consultant with Barris Lotterer Management Consulting, and a former director of operations of Conrad Acceptance Corporation, CAC, a billing, finance, and collection agency. Under his management, CAC experienced significant growth: staff increased by over 150%, portfolios grew by over 300%, and profits increased by over 200%. He is experienced in Business Process Analysis and Redesign and has over 4 years industry experience. Recent experience with Semiconductor Fabs and Assembly and Test operations includes Sliders, Flat Panel Display technologies, Mass Flow Controller technologies, and Hard Disk Drive Components. His consulting experience includes Lean Manufacturing implementation, Inventory Optimization and Management, Process Redesign and Training, Knowledge Management Systems, and Business Strategy Analysis and Planning. He holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Accounting (Business Administration) from the California State University at San Marcos.

Rob Graber:
Rob Graber is a Micro-economist specializing in the application of value analyses, options theory and investments in uncertain economic environments. Having spent nearly 20 years with General Electric as a Marketing Manager in their Nuclear Energy business, Mr. Graber has developed marketing and sales strategies in the energy industries with great success. In addition Mr. Graber specializes in deregulated electric market economic and financial forecasts and assessing generator value. Mr. Graber has experience in high tech industries, including the development of value-focused strategies for Cadence Design Systems in the EDA industry.

In recent engagements, Mr. Graber has developed shareholder valuation models around the service offerings of a semiconductor equipment company. He has also developed product valuation models to help set pricing and offering strategies for an equipment company, based on the premise of customer savings as a result of the offering and the price being a percentage of the customer savings.

Mr. Graber holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Miami, a Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and a Masters of Business Administration in Economics from the Stern Business School at New York University. He is also a partner in the energy consulting firm EconomicPath.

Paul Linthorst:
Paul Linthorst is a former Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers (and predecessor Coopers & Lybrand) and was Managing Partner for PWC Consulting in both Korea and Japan. He was also responsible for several consulting practices in the New York region, including Just-in-time Manufacturing, Total Quality Management and Materials Distribution. The range of consulting included Lean Manufacturing, Quality Management, MRP I & II, Distribution, Purchasing and Construction Management.

Recently, Paul has focused on implementing lean customer order and manufacturing flow, and six sigma quality systems with companies in the high technology, electrical products, engineering and construction, technical and financial services and fast moving consumer goods Industries. He has significant international experience working with companies in The Netherlands, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Germany, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Armenia, Romania and Canada.

Prior to joining Coopers & Lybrand, Paul was an operations analyst, master scheduler and plant manager with Lambda Electronics, a subsidiary of Veeco Instruments.

Board Memberships included Samil Coopers & Lybrand in Korea, Chuo Coopers & Lybrand in Japan, Alpha Outsourcing in Japan and FATE USA in the USA.

Paul Linthorst received a MSc from Delft University of Technology, an MBA in operations management from the Columbia University Business School in New York. He is fluent in English and Dutch and has a working knowledge of French and German. He is a member of AAOM (formerly APICS), ASQ and AME.

Edward S. Parish:
Ed Parrish is a former Director in PricewaterhouseCoopers Manufacturing Consulting Practice. He has extensive experience in both industry and consulting and has provided leadership and guidance to commercial, industrial and consumer manufacturing companies, including: aerospace equipment, automotive, furniture, microelectronics, telecommunications equipment, power tools, and industrial machinery. Mr. Parrish is one of the pioneers of Lean Manufacturing concepts in the United States and is proficient in synchronizing manufacturing capability with customer demand by integrating cellular manufacturing with the forecasting and scheduling processes. His work results in maximized customer service with minimum inventory and operating cost.

Scott Patrick:
Mr. Patrick is currently a senior consultant with Barris Lotterer Management Consulting (BLMC), and a former Performance Analyst with Wainwright Investment Counsel, where he was responsible for the analysis of potential business opportunities and the performance of existing clients. His experience extends to Business Process Analysis and Redesign, Operations Restructuring, and Financial Analysis, and has over 8 years of industry experience. He has consulted in a variety of industries including: Investment Banking, Micro-Flow Controllers, Sensors, Gauges, Semiconductor Fabrication, Assembly and Test operations including CMOS, LSI, and MEMS technologies, Medical Devices, and Hard Disk Drive Components. His consulting experience includes Lean Manufacturing implementation, Inventory Optimization and Management, Process Redesign, and Training. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Finance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Dr. Ana B. Rodriquez, Ph.D.:
Dr. Ana Rodriguez has over 15 years consulting experience for global semiconductor, computer and telecommunications clients in the areas of new product introduction, supply chain management, e-business strategy, and technology. She has extensive experience in strategy, business management and operations. She has managed several client engagements with results in excess of $100 million in savings 12-18 months after beginning the engagements. During her two plus years at Cadence Design Systems, she was a thought leader in Collaborative Product Development, managing and leading the development of methodology and service offerings, and defining the solutions and value for partner initiatives (including IBM, MatrixOne, PTC). As a group director in market development for Cadence's PCB Systems division, she developed and executed the silicon-package-board platform initiative.

Prior to joining Cadence, Dr. Rodriguez spent over 8 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she was a principal consultant/managing associate in the High Technology practice and managed large teams from concept through implementation. She was recognized as firm-wide subject matter expert in semiconductor operations restructuring and semiconductor industry issues. Ana holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from The University of Texas-Austin, a M.S. in Materials Science from Columbia University and a B.S. in Engineering from Columbia University.

Joseph D. (Chip) Webster:
Chip Webster has over 30 years of product development and product fulfillment experience with GE, Westinghouse and Cadence Design Systems. Mr. Webster brings senior management operations leadership experience in business development, marketing, sales, technical services and P&L management, including general management roles in both mature businesses and start-up environments. In addition, as a former Principal Consultant in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Management Consulting Practice, he has helped electronics, semiconductor, and semiconductor equipment companies achieve world-class manufacturing and service operations, and product development processes. Mr. Webster is an expert in Cost Reduction, Cycle Time Reduction, and Capacity Increase strategies and has proven results across several interrelated industries. He is also accomplished in Change Management, Quality Management Systems development, and marketing strategies and operations for the industrial, petrochemical, nuclear and power generation services industries. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from California State University.

Scott West:
Scott West is a staff consultant and a technical marketing engineer with expertise in the semiconductor test equipment market. Experienced with product development, product training, applications support, and technical sales support in international markets for both engineering test and production test industries. Recent accomplishments include introducing a new IMS memory evaluation system to the international market, successfully displacing the competing product in the top three SDRAM manufacturing companies, and expanding the market exposure of IMS from logic and mixed signal device evaluation to include memory device evaluation. Scott earned the IMS Star Club award for Outstanding Technical Support in 2000. He subsequently guided the feature requirements and delivery schedule for the next-generation memory evaluation system, resulting in purchase orders of over $2 million from two of the top three memory manufacturers, four months before the official product introduction. These successes have been built on experience with Teradyne, where his applications support resulted in break-in and continued sales at top memory device manufacturers in the US, Taiwan, and South Korea. Scott holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College and a Masters Degree in Engineering from the Claremont Graduate School.