Tauber Institute alumni bring their operations expertise to leadership roles in a wide variety of fields, all over the globe. Read about what some of our alumni are doing today, and learn about the impact their Tauber experience has had on their career paths.
MSE-IOE and MBA '03
CTO/CISO
Archimedes
Q: What drew you to the University of Michigan?
A: My family has a long history with U of M. Both my parents, my mother-in-law, my brother (also a Tauber grad!), a couple of cousins, my nephew and my wife are all grads. As I was transitioning out of the Air Force and looking to change careers, Michigan was one of the first places I looked. When I learned more about Tauber, it was just a fantastic fit for what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be.
Q: When you think back on your time with the Tauber Program, what stands out?
A: The people – hands down. The students come from all over, have amazing backgrounds and show up fully engaged. The entire staff, from the professors to the directors right up to the members of the advisory board are committed to creating an environment to develop the next group of industry leaders. I found that I learned as much if not more from my interactions with the people around me as I did from any of the coursework.
Q: What sticks with you as important lessons learned while at the Tauber Institute?
A: You have to get up out of the chair and go see what work is being done, how it is being done, and who is doing it. It seems everything we did at Tauber involved some version of “hands-on” learning. Everything from the summer team project, the Leadership Program or the Integrated Product Development course involves directly working with the systems and the people. Even in today’s high velocity, technology-driven companies, it still requires a well-synced team to get products out the door quickly – and if you don’t have an excellent feedback loop on how people are using that product, you won’t be in business long. I’ve tried hard to keep that mindset with me.
Q: What advice would you give to current or future Tauber students?
A: Never stop learning. I followed a fairly traditional path after Tauber and entered manufacturing. I thoroughly enjoyed it and kept finding myself getting pulled into the “gaps” between manufacturing and technology. I started studying and finding people who could help me better understand the underpinnings of how technology could enable more efficient operations. The next thing I knew, I was offered a job to take over core technology operations and implement Lean concepts to drive process improvement. That led to more learning and pretty soon I had moved into the technology space entirely, eventually becoming the Chief Technology Officer for a couple of different companies. The knowledge gained at Tauber across business, engineering, product, and technology was key to my ability to make this transition.