About
I've been the engineer, the R&D leader and the CTO answering to investors. I know what the business needs to see before it invests.
I've spent twenty years inside the rooms where manufacturers decide what to make next, and how much to bet on it.
Fortune 500 R&D
Fourteen years in corporate and business R&D at Dow Chemical.
- Platform relaunch: led the technical side of relaunching a $65M product platform, the first program through a new stage-gate process.
- Portfolio: helped manage a $1B new-product portfolio where programs were funded or cut.
- New product: pitched, staffed and led early development of the Great Stuff SMART Dispenser, still on the market.
Startup CTO
CTO of a venture-backed materials science startup spun out of Kimberly-Clark. No safety net, few established processes, and investors watching the runway.
- Built the function: engineering and manufacturing, from a few people.
- Wrote the playbook: the R&D process the team runs on.
- Both sides of the business: technical and commercial, because in a startup they can't run separately.
Close to the work
- Shop floor: ran a machine shop; designed and built complex injection molds and dies.
- Engineering tools: experience with CAD (SolidWorks, NX) and FEA (Abaqus, LS Dyna), materials testing.
- 17 granted patents: projecting the technology. Devloping an IP strategy.
- Six Sigma Black Belt: a habit of systematically solving problems backed by data.
Leading people
Twelve years as a people leader, building and managing teams. The best product ideas live or die on how the team is led.
I also write for AllThingsInnovation.com on how manufacturers turn customer insight into products that pay off.
Innovation is paid for today and pays off later, sometimes in months, sometimes in years. Schulz THINK exists to help R&D and engineering leaders make every one of those months and years count.
Based in in the Fox Valley just outside of Appleton, Wisconsin. Working with manufacturers wherever the work needs to get done.