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SCORE, America's
Counselors to Small Business, is a volunteer organization that does free
counseling for entrepreneurs starting their own business and free consulting
to small business with problems of any type. The Greater Knoxville SCORE
chapter has over 30 counselors who have volunteered to do this work free
of charge. What type of people are they? Does their background qualify
them to do this counseling and consulting? Here is a brief description
of some of these volunteers:
Mike Baltzell - Mr.
Baltzell retired from Alcoa after 34 years in the Primary Aluminum industry.
He served in a number of senior management positions including President
of Primary Development and President of Alcoa of Australia for Alcoa,
President of Primary Aluminum and Senior Vice President of the Eastalco
smelter for Alumax Aluminum. Mr. Baltzell holds a BES from Johns Hopkins
University in Industrial Engineering and Operations research and an MSc
in Operations Research from George Washington University. He has extensive
experience in business operations management including process improvement
and quality systems.
Larry Byrkit -[ON
INACTIVE STATUS] Retired after 22 years as President & CEO
of Union Planters Bank of the Tennessee Valley. Mr. Byrkit started his
career in various management positions in the banking industry in central
Illinois and the greater Cincinnati area prior to moving to East Tennessee
in 1982. His extensive background in "Turnaround Management",
reorganization, and lending made his bank a consistent top performing
financial institution in Tennessee. He has a degree in Business Administration
from Millikin University, attended the Wisconsin School of Banking, the
Commercial Lending School at the University of Oklahoma, and he is a past
member of the Society of Real Estate Appraisers. He has served on several
boards and is a past president of the Chamber of Commerce.
Gerald Carlson -
During his industrial career, Dr. Carlson, was a member of S.C.Johnson's
worldwide R&D executive committee and led three of Johnson's four
R&D divisions. Prior to working in industry he was an Assistant Professor
of Medicine & Biochemistry at Mayo Clinic. In addition to volunteering
his time with SCORE, he is the managing partner of a consulting practice
and is affiliated with two other consulting practices that focus on new
business development, new product development, technology transfer, and
intellectual property management. Dr. Carlson also serves as an advisor
to various incubator and technology centers locally as well as nationally.
Additionally he is an invited lecturer at the University of Tennessee
in the Law School and the Engineering MS/MBA program
Ray Cavender- [ON
INACTIVE STATUS] A native of East Tennessee, graduated from Tennessee
Tech with a degree in Business Management. He has over 30 years of textile
and apparel management experience most of which was with Levi Strauss
& CO. After joining LS&CO in 1968 he held several management positions
including Quality Assurance, Contractor Management, Plant & Distribution
Management. In 1980 he moved to San Francisco and became Director of Operations
for the Mens Sportswear Division of Levi's. In his last position he was
responsible for the sourcing of all Levi products produced in Mexico,
Caribbean,& Central America. He retired in 1997 from Levi's and for
a short time did consulting engagements for textile and apparel firms
interested in offshore manufacturing then returned to East Tennessee in
2004.
Chuck Christiansen
- General Management, Executive: P&L responsibility for manufacturing
facilities in areas of metal stampings, cold heading & forming, impact
extrusion, plastic injection molding & extrusion, assembly, distribution
& warehousing. Owner of several small retail firms. Particularly skilled
& adept at "Turn Around Management". Several years [over
15] experience in Sales & Marketing. Owned a screw & washer assembly
operation. Owned retail establishments ranging from mail order to gift
shop to camping trailer distribution. Consultant for Reorganization, Strategic
Planning, and Business Planning. International Executive Service Corps
volunteer with completed assignments in Macedonia [1 seven month assignment]
, Kazakhstan [3 assignments, 1 month, 3 months, 4 months] & 1 assignment
Tajikistan [3 months]Education: Rockford School of Business, Rockford,
Illinois with accounting degree. Many courses and seminars in management,
marketing, personnel & human relations. Extensive experience in third
world countries as volunteer adviser to companies converting from planned
economy to market economy in all areas of industry; retail, wholesale,
distribution, manufacturing, service, communications, transportation,
agriculture
Jennifer Cole
- Jennifer Cole is an Industrial Engineer by education, experience,
and nature. For over twenty years, she has implemented process improvements
and performed cost analyses in the manufacturing sector. While she spent
some time in the food and garment industries, most of her experience has
been in the extremely challenging automotive supply base. She is also
a partner in a small candy manufacturing business, which gives her opportunity
to use her skills in her own company as well as eat lots of candy. When
not busy with work or business, she enjoys 5Sing her home, hiking, reading,
and spoiling her dog.
Jeanne Daly
-
A. Herman Gerbig Jr.
- Graduated from Southern Illinois University with a degree in Economics,
did graduate work in accounting and marketing. Worked for a casualty insurance
company as an underwriter. Later worked in the finance departments of
International Harvester and Magnavox, which was purchased by North American
Philips. After retiring, with 34 years, from Philips did consulting for
them on the closing of two divisions.
Don Griffin - has
a commendable history of building substantial shareholder value in turnaround
assignments as CEO or president of several manufacturing organizations.
He has extensive experience in multi-plant operations producing products
to exacting specifications in the pharmaceutical packaging, personal care,
cosmetics and food container markets. He has served in two organizations
as CFO and has in depth knowledge of activity based cost accounting and
budgeting systems. He has been involved his entire career in the application
of information technology to the manufacturing process. Don graduated
from Purdue University's Krannert School of Management with a Master of
Science in Industrial Administration.
Ed Harless
- has
over 30 years of diverse business experience in the Health Care and Marketing
Services industries. He recently retired from ADVO, Inc, the nation's
largest full service targeted direct mail marketing services company,
as Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer. He held
various positions at life science company Aventis Bio-Services, including
Senior Vice President and General Manager, and has held senior human resources
and general management positions with American Hospital Supply Corporation,
Revlon Healthcare, and Pilkington Barnes-Hind. He has had hands on experience
in new business start-ups and business turnarounds. Primary skills are
general management, customer service and logistics, human resources, and
business planning. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue
University and a Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University.
He has served as a Director for the Hartford Arts council, and, as a veteran
of the U.S. Navy, is an active member of the American Legion
Mark Harris
- [ON INACTIVE STATUS] has degrees from the University of
Illinois and Roosevelt University. Handled all the administrative functions
of the Silver Furniture Company. In later years the firm began importing
and he managed this segment, which became 60% of the total business. Is
head of the allocation committee which decides where money raised by the
Jewish Federation is distributed. Is member of the Jewish Social Service
Committee. Was past Chair of the Board of the Hesca Amuna Synagogue and
the Campaign Chairman of the Jewish Federation.
Richard Jenkins -25
years experience in Business to Business (B to B) Product Management and
Marketing with various Document Communication Systems providers including
Moore Business Forms Corporation and Standard Register. Primary skills
include market identification, market and strategic planning, product
development, introduction, and management. Other skills include creating
Business and Marketing plans, trending and projection, collateral creation
and design, direct mail campaigns, and trade show design and management.
Larry Jones
- Over 36 years in engineering and technical disciplines, managing organizations
responsible for safe operation of four nuclear production reactors, design
of nuclear materials processing facilities, and overall security for the
site-wide inventory of classified information and weapons grade nuclear
materials at a U.S. Department of Energy site. Larry's human resources
experience includes monitoring and consoling a total workforce of over
10,000 during a two-year union campaign by the United Steelworkers, developing
strategies and policies for implementing unique wage practices consistent
with complex and long-held seniority procedures for this workforce, management
of a commercial explosives manufacturing facility operated under an aggressive
Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) contract, and direct management
of technical and operations staffs up to 550. Larry retired in 2004 and
holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Lamar University
Arthur Kareff--Brings
over 35 years of business experience in consumer and technology products
marketing, strategic planning and executive level management.
In 1997 he established AJK Associates, a management consulting firm that
focused on the strategic development and field implementation processes
required to deliver client growth and profitability. His experience includes
bringing startup companies to market, channel and market expansion, and
negotiation and implementation of strategic business partnerships. Major
clients included the International Dairy Foods Association, Suiza-Morningstar
Foods and GAP Technologies. Before starting his own company he held various
senior level positions. Including, Executive Vice President for the Rockola
Corporation, a global manufacturer of digital juke boxes and beverage
vending machines and Vice President of North America Sales and Vice President
International Market Development for Mars Inc. a global supplier of transaction
payment systems to the beverage, vending, foodservice and gaming industries.
Additional experience includes the Snapple Beverage Company where his
responsibilities as the National Vending Manager included the development
and management of the corporate cold drink sales and marketing strategy
for the company and its 300 distributors and with Beverage Management
Incorporated as Director of Cold Drink Marketing for the companies 10
multi state soft drink bottling operations.
Sybil Keeble
- After over 20 years as Manager of the Birmingham, Alabama division of
Shook & Fletcher (a contractor and distributor of industrial insulation)
started a branch in Knoxville. Advised and worked with manufactures of
ferrous and nonferrous metals, along with clients who had lower temperature
needs. After 20 years of successfully managing this Knoxville branch,
retired in 1998
Frank Kot - has over
40 years of diverse engineering and product development experience n the
Consumer Electronics industry. He recently retired from Philips, a major
global consumer and industrial electronics company, as Senior Director
of Strategic Product Planning for US Projection Television products. He
held various positions at Philips, including Director of advanced digital
set-top technology and VP of Engineering of an in-house startup technology
business (PHIS). Primary skills are product development planning and engineering
management. He has earned Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from
the University of Illinois and a Master of Business Administration from
Loyola University in Chicago. For the past 20 years he has been an active
volunteer for AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization).
Alex Leus--served
in the US Navy Submarine Corps 1961 - 1967. Graduated from University
of Detroit Mercy with Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, 1969 and a Master
of Engineering, 1970. Completed 50% graduate course requirements for a
Doctor of Engineering. Retired from DTE Energy, a power utility company
located in Detroit, Michigan where also cooped as a student engineer.
Spent 33 years with DTE Energy of which 22 years were in instrumentation
and control system research and design, reliability analysis, risk assessment
and ergonomics design for fossil and nuclear power plants. Including 3
years as a Supervisor in this area. The remaining 11 years were in the
areas of business process improvement, which included team human dynamics,
business process dynamics, business process dynamic modeling, continuous
improvement, reengineering and Six-Sigma applications in the areas of
administration, power plants and energy distribution work flows within
the DTE Energy Corporation. Retired for approximately eight years, 6 ½
years of those 8 years served as a volunteer math and science tutor at
Sequoyah High School located in Madisonville, TN.
Tsutomu (Tom) Motoyama
- A Japanese native US citizen who worked for thirty-one years in TV electronics
design and manufacturing at Philips USA and Canada. Tom, earned degrees
in Broadcasting Engineering from Nippon Electrical Engineering College
in Tokyo, Japan and in Computer Science from Concordia University in Montreal,
Canada. His customer satisfaction concepts in product quality stem from
experience garnered in understanding the unique environment and culture
of enterprises throughout overseas assignments at various locations including
Algeria, China, Malaysia, Netherlands, and Singapore, as well as business
trips to around fifty countries. One of his inventions "Blue Screen
(mute Video and/or Sound)" among other patents is widely used worldwide.
Until he retired, he served as Director of New Products Quality at Philips
USA and as Director of Product Quality Worldwide at TCL China as Philips
and RCA OEM.
Herb Nachman
- is a marketing/communications specialist with a BA in Journalism
& Mass Communications from UNC, Chapel Hill. Has over 30 years experience
as a printing sales & healthcare marketing/communications executive
in New York. He operated his own marketing/communications firm, producing
healthcare educational programs for pharmaceutical clients. He launched
the Acuvue Contact Lens from Johnson & Johnson to the national professional
marketplace. Moving to Nashville in 1995, he directed marketing for the
Bureau for At-Risk Youth, a national provider of educational services.
Herb has served on numerous nonprofit boards including President of Nashboro
Woods Homeowners Association, the First Unitarian Church of Nashville,
Nashville Cares and Meals on Wheels of Stamford, CT. Herb is a Major,
USAFR retired and served in Korea.
Grant Palmer -
Dana Peterka
- Received his Bachelor of Science degree from South Dakota School of
Mines. Has completed over 40 educational programs including Certified
Financial Counselor Training by Dave Ramsey, Work Process Re-engineering
by Geary Rummler, Creative Problem Solving at Synectics, New Product Development
at the University of Michigan, and Marketing and Business Management programs
at Columbia University. Served as Director of Marketing and IT Director
at a Dow Jones 30 industrial company. Is Chair of the Small Business and
Retail Committee of the Roane County Chamber of Commerce and past Chair
of the Greater Knoxville SCORE Chapter. Enjoys doing volunteer work including
working with small business managers to improve their effectiveness
Walter Roessler
- Holds a BSIE and an MBA with an Econ Major, retired from General
Motors after 39+ years, half of which was involved in Industrial and Systems
Engineering activities including factory floor process and methods improvements
and design and implementation of business systems in large manufacturing
operations. The last 20 years were spent in Materials Management
and Purchasing, managing and directing Production/Inventory Control activities,
plus responsibility for a buying and supplier quality group overseeing
$2.5B annual procurement value. A member of AIIE (American Institute of
Industrial Engineers) and a Lifetime Certified Purchasing Manager (NAPM).
Has led major fund raising activities and served as an officer and board
member of various nonprofit activities.
Stewart G. (Stu) Siewert
- Graduated from Tennessee Tech with a degree in Music and then became
an officer in the U.S. Army (Signal Corps) for three years. Upon leaving
the military, he entered the University of Tennessee and obtained a Masters
Degree in Accounting. He worked 33 years for Deloitte & Touche public
accountants including 16 years in international locations in the Far East,
Western and Eastern Europe. Major areas of interest were in turnaround
management, operations, and mergers and acquisitions.
Vickie Smith -
Worked in insurance business with special relationship with General
Motors in pilot program with dealers before serving as financial manager
for large dealer. In 1989,
partnered to start a building supply business which grew from 5 to 50
employees and a full manufacturing shop. Completed degree in accounting
at Tennessee Tech before acquiring an old line hardware store in 2001.
Revived the business and expanded sales by 49% before liquidating in 2005
at retirement. Served as officer and board member for various nonprofit
and professional organizations.
Larry Struttmann-
Graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1947 and spent his
working years in the anti-friction bearing industry. Is currently President
of the National Association of Investor Corporation (NAIC) chapter formed
in Knoxville. NAIC is a 51 year old organization dedicated to teaching
methods on how to evaluate common stock Since retiring in 1995 has been
doing SCORE counseling in Loudon County and works closely with the Loudon
County Chamber of Commerce. Also, lectures to ROTC High School students
on the Free Enterprise System.
Gerald Weinerman
- [ON INACTIVE STATUS] has degree in accounting from the
College of the City of New York and did graduate work in systems, accounting
and law at both NYU and Columbia University. Was the Credit Vice President
for Philips Consumer Electronics, which included budgeting, staffing,
terms of sale, floor planning, and branch offices in 10 cities. Prior
to joining Philips, did public accounting, private accounting, insurance
and investment work.
Tom Whisman - Currently
Business Reference manager at Knox County Public Library. He received
a BA in Italian and did graduate work in French, Italian, and Ornamental
Horticulture & Landscape Design at the University of Tennessee. He
also completed an MS in Information Science at the University of Tennessee
and has 37 years experience in reference/research, 17 of those in business
information. Served as president of DiscoverET (formerly KORRnet), East
Tennessee's community website portal
Walter Williams
- Received an Industrial Engineering Degree from the Ohio State Universality
and MBA from University of Dayton. After working in manufacturing with
engineering, plant and general management responsibilities, he founded
a consulting company for computer based business systems for manufacturing
as a regional BM business partner . Then worked with University of Tennessee's
Center for Industrial Services as an Electronic Commerce Consultant serving
small business across the state of Tennessee. Volunteer activity in Knoxville
included board member duties for such organizations as Knoxville Chamber
of Commerce, American Red Cross, APICS and Kidney Foundation. Recent work
activities include consulting and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for
Internet web site design.
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