Who you are hiring

The fractional COO defense founders call when the prime letter lands.

I trained as an electrical engineer and ended up running the company. Advanced manufacturing, specialty sensors, PID controllers, automation, then the parts engineers usually avoid: the P&L, the payroll, the audit chair, the board.

The path here

I have run a defense electronics manufacturer as CEO and directed the US and Canada operation of an Italian sensor multinational, with executive education at Harvard, Oxford, and MIT Sloan behind the engineering. I have run an MRP cutover on a live floor and signed the front of a paycheck. That is the difference between an operator and an advisor.

I directed GEFRAN's North American operation, an Italian sensor and automation multinational, including the zero-downtime relocation of its US facility from Winchester to an expanded site in North Andover, so I have stood where my market-entry clients are landing. I am the foreign parent's US operator again now, standing up a compliant New Hampshire facility for a global OEM of asset-tracking equipment with Canadian and US R&D: ISO 9001:2015 certified with zero nonconformities in 71 days, with an ITAR-grade data border between international R&D and the US enclave. The onshoring case study in the resource library documents it.

I started taking engagements because I kept meeting founders with excellent parts and bottlenecked operations, surrounded by AI consultants who had never owned a number. I built Standard Work 2.0 to hand them the operating system I wish I had been handed. As resident fractional COO I de-risk the facility layout, set the ITAR and CMMC data borders, and build operational DNA with zero administrative waste.

A technician calibrating a connectorized sensor module at an ESD workstation on a precision electromechanical and sensor manufacturing floor, cool blue-grey tones with a single warm brass highlight on the work surface.
A modern New England advanced-manufacturing facility at dusk, brick-and-glass architecture of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire defense corridor with warm light glowing from the windows against a cool blue-grey evening sky.

What I believe

The operating principles behind every engagement.

Foundation before transformation. Clean, secure data and documented process come before any new technology.

Problem first, technology second. I map the value stream, find the constraint, then build the system that clears it.

Human-in-the-loop integrity. In a regulated environment, automation augments verified human judgment and never replaces it.

Scarcity is honest. Four engagements is the limit of doing this work at depth.

Proof of operating role

An operator, not an advisor.

P&L owned

CEO and P&L ownership

Signed payroll and owned the P&L as CEO of a defense electronics manufacturer, where a turnaround doubled revenue, and directed the US and Canada operation of an Italian sensor multinational.

71 days

To ISO 9001:2015 certified

A global asset-tracking OEM's New Hampshire facility, taken from stand-up to ISO 9001:2015 certified with zero nonconformities in 71 days.

$130K+

Software cost avoidance identified

At a defense ATE contract manufacturer: $75K in migration fees bypassed, roughly $55K a year in ERP license savings identified.

30 days

Operational triage to written plan

A defensible written plan in roughly five weeks at twenty hours a week, not a deck.

US site stand-up

Foreign-parent onshoring, active

Standing up a compliant New Hampshire facility for a global asset-tracking OEM with Canadian and US R&D. Engagement in progress.

4 engagements

Maximum concurrent, by design

Capacity is the constraint and the proof. Engagements under NDA.

I speak P&L and shop floor in the same sentence: I have stood on the floor at 6 a.m. and answered for the number at the board the same week.

Who I serve

You already recognize your shop in this.

You are an allied advanced-technology, aerospace, or semiconductor manufacturer, often Canadian, UK, German, or Italian parented, turning a prototype into a secure US production line to win DoD work.

You own or run a 5 to 75 million dollar contract manufacturer serving defense primes, build-to-print or build-to-spec.

You are engineering-led and operationally bottlenecked, with a backlog that will not convert to cash.

You are a PE operating partner who needs forensic operational diligence before the LOI hardens.

Why an operator, not an advisor

  • Floor-level engineering depth plus CEO and international-operations P&L experience, not a slide deck and a certification.
  • Defense industrial base specialization: ITAR, CMMC 2.0, AS9100, CUI handling, and a secure digital thread.
  • Compliance hardwired into the daily workflow, so the auditor finds it running.
  • One scarce operator running four engagements at a time, not a roster you get matched into.

Credentials

The discipline behind the method.

Electrical engineer by training (University of New Hampshire), with executive education at MIT Sloan, Harvard Business School, and Oxford Saïd, and CEO and international-operations history.
Toyota Production System and lean practice: Kaizen, Gemba, 5S, pull systems, kanban, SQDIP, value stream mapping.
Working command of ITAR, DFARS, CMMC 2.0, NIST 800-171, AS9100, ISO, and CUI handling across IT and OT.
Standard Work 2.0 is my proprietary operating framework, built from the floor to the P&L.
Lean discipline carried into OT and IT, where the digital thread and the compliance evidence live.

Memberships & affiliations

  • NH Aerospace and Defense Consortium (NHADC)
  • Navy New England Talent Pipeline Program
  • AI in NH
  • NH Tech Alliance

Named prime relationships

Engagements across the New England defense base are under NDA. Named prime relationships appear as each client clears them for publication.

Request a Strategic Conversation