Dipl.-Ing. Ricardo de los Rios Ituarte

I led a drastic change to mobilize a broken company (negative equity of about 50 M €) and in free fall, as a consequence of a paralyzed management team and a highly toxic culture.

I had the responsibility over 150 million € business, including production sites in China, South Korea, India and Japan. As a member of the Steering Committee I participated in defining the vision and the strategy for the group. My mission was the deployment of the strategy and the development of the business in the Asian markets. The main challenge was to adapt the value proposition of the German corporate parent and create the channels for know how transfer

executed the industrial strategy , reduced costs and implemented a Lean Production philosophy. I was able to lead a radical change in the production philosophy that led to reductions of Lead Time by 40% and cycle time by 25%. The reduction in operating costs resulted in a 10% increase in EBITDA. During this process I rebuild the management team, unified it and implemented a culture focused on results

Due to the deterioration of the company upon my arrival, the job was to restructure the company operationally and to stop losses so that the property could sell in good terms, what finally happened. Thor Foundry Ltd went from a loss of € 400,000 in 2005 to a profit of € 50,000 in 2006

Led the improvement of the value chain processes implementing TPS doubling productivity and improving working climate Managed the technological development of the industrial area: I modernized the industrial area of Ilarduya completely, with absolute autonomy, adapting HQ´s technology. Technology that I evolved and helped later implement in other companies of the German group .