Eric R. Uppiano
Eric passionately believes all leadership and processes can be improved. This comes from over 38 years in industry leading groups such as Parts Manufacturing, Assembly Operations, Sustaining Engineering, Product Development, Brand Management, Marketing, Sales and Human Resources. These roles were in numerous industry types from vertically integrated American manufacturers to Fortune 500 companies. Additionally, 15 years of exposure to many Pacific Rim electro-optical suppliers provided him valuable insights into the manufacturing methods, cost structures, cultures and attitudes of America’s competitors offshore.
Eric developed an enterprise wide resume since graduating from the College of Idaho with a degree in Business in 1980. He began with 5 years the coatings industry with a manufacturer in Boise, Idaho. He later served as Territory Manager for a large Fortune 500 company and as an HR consultant in a small consulting group of 10 employees (IEC Management Resource Group). With the latter, he enjoyed 5 years gaining insights from intimate access to management and operations of more than 650 companies across the Northwest supporting them with management training, compensation program development, organizational restructuring, employee opinion surveys and individual leadership development.
Working for Blount, Inc. in the Sporting Equipment Division as the Optics Brand Manager, Eric and his team grew the category from a single optics brand of $9 mm to three brands and $50 mm annual sales.
Most recently, he spent 19 years with Leupold & Stevens, a world class American optics manufacturing company in director level positions. As a senior leader he spent 6 years directing all aspects of the parts manufacturing area, 7 years in brand management, marketing and product development and 6 years leading Assembly Operations. In those roles he also was responsible for engineering teams, customer service, product services and other support functions.
Eric is married with three grown daughters. His passions are spending time traveling with his wife internationally and sailing, regularly exercised with friends and family on their 35’ Beneteau sailboat located in the South Puget Sound.
Julie Simmons
Julie Simmons currently works with her husband Scott as part of the Scott Wade Simmons & Associates, LLC providing leadership coaching and training in Strategy Development and Deployment, Leadership Development, and the Improvement Kata & Coaching Kata. Julie’s passion is helping others develop their skills, capabilities, and confidence to solve complex challenges in their organizations using scientific thinking.
Julie retired as the Executive Director for the Northwest High Performance Enterprise Consortium (NWHPEC) in January 2018 after leading the organization for fourteen years. As the Executive Director, Julie was responsible for promoting the vision, mission, and purpose of the consortium within the Portland and Vancouver business area. Her primary focus was: planning and organizing continuous improvement learning events, coordinating benchmarking and sharing between consortium members, and meeting the continuous improvement learning needs of the fourty-plus member companies. Julie also provided daily mentoring and coaching to individual companies within the NWHPEC membership, as well as formal training and coaching in the Improvement Kata and Coaching Kata.
Prior to joining NWHPEC in 2004, Julie worked at the The Boeing Company for 14 years as Flight Line Expeditor, Shortage Controller, Supply Chain Analyst, and Manufacturing Process Analyst. She developed her skills as a Continuous Improvement practitioner while working as a Manufacturing Process Analyst where she became a Certified Accelerated Improvement Workshop leader and supported several Shingijutsu led Kaizen events.
In her spare time, Julie enjoys traveling to warm, sunny oceanic destinations, gardening, bicycle and motorcycle riding, playing Texas Hold’em, cooking for family and friends, and spending time with her husband Scott in all of their shared hobbies.
Scott Simmons
Scott Wade Simmons
Executive Leader/CoachEngineering, Manufacturing & Global Supply Chain Leader
Leadership Intention: “To serve others graciously, develop others patiently, recognize others daily, challenge others for their highest creativity, while striving urgently for excellence.”
Professional Experience:
Scott is currently working with local area business leaders to help them improve business metrics, engage their team members, and develop and advance their business visions.
Scott has over 32 years of leadership and management experience in a variety of diverse technical roles and product markets, including: performance optics, machine tools, shipbuilding, nuclear energy, equipment fabrication, military and aerospace. After years of experience and learningin these roles, Scott believes the real work of a leader is to teach, develop, and equip people with the skills to handle complex challenges while creating an environment where people thrive.
Community and Industry Involvement:
Scott supported the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) as the West Regional Director for Oregon from 2005 to 2015. His intention was to strengthen the Pacific NW’s manufacturing industries by developing business improvement skills. Scott volunteered by facilitating AME events in Oregon, Idaho, and Washington as member of AME’s West Region Board of Directors and has presented at AME’s annual international Conference. Scott provides Business Improvement training to area organizations upon request.
Personal:
Scott is a lifelong archer, hunter, bicyclist and motorcycle enthusiast having begun these pursuits as a teenager. In his spare time he enjoys working on the house, spending time with his children and granddaughters, and traveling the world with his wife.
Robin Geertz
It has been a dream of Robins to own her own company. Last Spring, she started Dragonfly 360, Inc. a consulting company offering financial and process improvement services to organizations.
Robin was previously the Corporate Controller at Leupold & Stevens (L&S), where she led the accounting department in preparation of financial statements in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Her responsibility included oversight over internal controls, risk management, taxes, budget, payroll, accounts payable and collection activity, while leading key interdepartmental process and system improvement efforts.
Prior to joining L&S, Robin was the financial controller for McKenna Metal, LLC (MM) a local custom metal fabrication company. Her focus was to prepare MM for their next stage of growth by creating policies and procedures, initiating their first strategic plan, aligning them with governmental programs to reduce taxes and increase training dollars. She helped them obtain non-profit consulting scholarship that led them to receive company-wide Lean Manufacturing training and implement changes to improve work processes and quality. Robin also applied for and won a Small Business Development scholarship for MM, available to only a dozen companies annually.
Prior to MM, Robin was an accounting manager for NW Natural, a publicly held Gas Utility, in Portland. She was responsible for the accounting oversight of gas storage and acquisition transactions totaling over $500 million per year, SOX controls, regulatory accounting and filings ranging from county to international level. She has actively led several projects to improve systems and processes throughout her career, including leading a billing team to reduce costs and errors ultimately resulting in nationwide recognition. Robin was the first individual awarded NW Natural’s Above and Beyond Award for her efforts to lead her team towards improvements. She’s had additional lead roles in investment and real estate accounting, payroll and asset cost accounting.
Robin graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and Communications from Concordia University. She was nominated and selected by NW Natural executives to participate in the Portland Business Alliance program diving deep into business and civic leadership, graduating Leadership Portland in 2014. Robin is currently pursuing her MBA with Project Management concentration and will graduate Spring 2019.