A graduate of the University of Illinois in 1980 with a Masters Degree in Engineering, Gene has been involved in engineering, new product development and business management for over 25 years. As an engineer, Gene worked at Bell Laboratories (later Lucent Technologies, now Alcatel-Lucent) and the Professional Services Division of Control Data Corporation.

While Chief Engineer for a large, multi-division, worldwide supplier of engineered, metal bellows, Gene was instrumental in successfully bringing to market some key, new products for several automotive (Chrysler, Ford) and aerospace (Lockheed) customers. Later, as a Business Unit Director for the same company, he was responsible for managing the P&L (profit and loss) for several product and market portfolios.

For the last 9 years, Gene has been the Principal of mc2solutions.

In 2005, Gene’s firm was a charter member of the Partnership for Lean Innovation (PLI). Funded by a grant from the state of Ohio, PLI worked with 14 southern Ohio companies to improve their product development processes using Lean principles and to increase their level of product innovation.

For the last several years, Gene has closely collaborated with Jim Jacobs and the Savvy Consortium and is the founder of the Savvy Consortium in Chicago. He teaches workshops in Lean and Knowledge-Based Product Development based on the work done by Dr. Allen Ward and Michael Kennedy.

Gene does new product development training for the Product Development & Management Association (PDMA) and is certified as a New Product Development Professional (NPDP). Gene was a member of the Certification committee for PDMA having been active in the development of the exam and the exam prep review.

In 2005, Gene was awarded the designation EMCP (Engineering Management Certification Professional) by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in recognition of his engineering management contributions and achievements over the years.

He is a sought after speaker and regularly presents for professional organizations like AME, MRT and PDMA. He regularly publishes articles on improving product development operations in various professional publications.

Sue has over 23 years experience in research and new product development. As an engineer, manager and , finally, Director of Quality with Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies (now Alcatel-Lucent), she has worked in a variety of areas including hardware, HW/SW architecture, system test, quality, project management and business management.

Sue has a Bachelor’s Degree in Structural Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Structural Mechanics from the University of Illinois at Chicago.