John Contento

GEA PHE Sys., a manufacturer of plated heat exchangers, tasked me to build the operations culture of their brand new 200,000 sq. foot production facility; negotiate an operations friendly, initial contract with the UAW; quickly grow the operational capacity of their state of the art equipment to meet projected rapid sales demand; reduce order fulfillment lead times; and substantially improve on time delivery performance.

NVF Co., a vertically integrated paper based products manufacturer, charged me to expand their operation and revitalize a stagnant ISO 9000 registration effort. Directed Manufacturing, Engineering, Maintenance, Planning and Shipping

In this family owned, regional company, I reported directly to the Partner responsible for their Pet Bird and Small Animal Foods Division. I was charged to bring structure to the newly created position of General Manager, eliminate the disconnect between Manufacturing and Sales/Marketing, and grow the business.

In this privately held, three paperboard manufacturing mills company, I was the first Division Manager to function without a Managing Partner onsite. Tasked with turning around their smallest facility from a breakeven position so as to avoid its potential closure, a restructured team and I “recreated” each department and within two years made it the Company’s leading profit producer, yielding a 10% return before taxes.