Ernie Arboles has over seven years of in-depth training and hands-on deployment of Six Sigma methodologies. He is a Certified Master Black Belt skilled in driving change through all levels of an organization by educating employees and executives on the value of continuous process improvement and quality enhancement programs.

Ernie began an eleven-year career with NBC starting as a journalist and television broadcast executive, holding numerous leadership positions covering the Olympic Games, several elections, and national and local news stories.

He was later promoted to Vice President of Quality where he introduced Six Sigma initiatives across an entire division of NBC. Here he spearheaded a number of cost saving and revenue generating projects and deployed Six Sigma to 300+ employees, developing the methodology and process for selecting, prioritizing and implementing quality improvement projects across the division. Most recently, Ernie led the planning and integration of three television stations in Los Angeles, producing the first English-Spanish co-located tri-opoly in the country.

Ernie holds a Bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism and an MBA in Finance, Organizational Behavior, Marketing & Sales from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

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Jim brings a wealth of experience from the high tech, hospitality, manufacturing, and engineering industries. He has been involved with process improvement and change initiatives for over 12 years and has trained and mentored Black Belts for the past six years. Jim's strength is facilitating cross-functional teams to resolve chronic business problems.

Originally trained in textile engineering, Jim led a number of teams to achieve significant savings through cost controls, enhanced work methods and improvement material utilization. His efforts led to over $1 million in savings and dramatic streamlining of operations. Later, as a design engineer responsible for readying new technologies for production, he became skilled in process and product Design for Six Sigma methods. In this role, he also filed seven invention disclosures and two patent applications.

Jim's successful track record continued at GE (Power Systems), where he received his Master Black Belt certification and guided a number of successful initiatives. One highlight was an effort that reduced cycle times for building motors from four weeks to three days, increasing performance to customer delivery request dates from 30% to over 75%.

As a consultant, Jim has taken his on-the-job experience, practical approach and off-beat humor to train and consult a wide range of client organizations in Six Sigma and Lean efforts. His various clients in manufacturing and transactional environments have seen a combined yield of more than $13 million. Jim has trained and coached hundreds of Champions, Master Black Belts, Black Belts and Green Belts in all aspects of process improvement for such clients as Sun, AOL, Palm, Nokia, GE and Roche Diagnostics.

Jim has a B.S. in Textile Engineering from the Southern College of Technology.

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Kelly brings over 15 years of experience in process-based organization design, measurement and problem solving. Her areas of expertise include: Six Sigma and Lean for Service Organizations; Business Process Reengineering; Change Management and Facilitation; Process Management and Measurement; Baldrige-Based Business Assessment; Training Design, Development and Implementation; and Customer Listening System Design and Implementation.

Kelly has helped companies in the industries of Retail, Finance and Entertainment/Broadcasting to design and implement successful organizational change, leading to long-term and sustainable benefits. Her tailored methods work with unique company cultures, people and business needs to achieve speedy results, and ultimately to build lasting internal capacity for continuous improvement.

Kelly's practical approach was honed in her years in management with American Express, GE and Target. Among her achievements with those companies: she led a company-wide Six Sigma initiative, achieving over $65 million in benefits across divisions as diverse as merchandising, distribution, retail operations, and information technology; she led senior management teams in translating their strategic imperatives into business measurement systems, and defined cross-functional improvement activities as well as employee performance management processes; and she established and coached project teams that achieved up to 40% improvement in performance, in a variety of organizations and functions ranging from marketing to customer service, finance, human resources, and more. Kelly also was a leader of an international Six Sigma training team, serving over 80,000 employees in 11 languages, with audiences that ranged from executives to front-line employees, and programs that integrated classroom and e-learning tools for higher efficiency and effectiveness.

Kelly holds a Bachelor's degree from the University at Albany, New York, and a Master's degree from the University of Minnesota.

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Ross Buckwalter has over 30 years of experience in the application of statistical and other methods related to quality and process improvement. His major areas of focus include statistical process control, statistical analysis methods, design of experiments, and Taguchi methods. He also has assisted and guided client companies in developing quality systems for certification to ISO 9000 and Boeing's D1-9000.

For the past six years Ross has been very active in the Six Sigma arena, having taught DMAIC and DMADV courses and also advanced courses incorporating more in-depth and hands-on statistical methods, for many clients. He has a unique ability in relating the often technical and esoteric statistical concepts and tools to real-world situations. He has guided many teams in the successful application of Six Sigma methodology to their process improvement projects.

Ross was a manager of Statistical Analysis at Hercules Aerospace. He also headed up a successful quality improvement initiative that involved training 4500 employees and guiding the implementation of basic quality tools. He has extensive experience in developing courses and conducting training in quality and statistics, and is the author of a series of 26 training modules for the Council for Continuous Improvement (CCI). Some of his client companies are Applied Materials, Hexcel, Pacific Bell, FMC, Texas Instruments, Varian and Kaiser Electronics.

Ross is a Senior Consultant with Pivotal Resources and holds both a B.A. and M.S. in Mathematical Statistics from Brigham Young University. He is a member of the American Statistical Association and the American Society for Quality Control.

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For the last 16 years, Greg has supported organizational efforts to improve critical business processes. By analyzing customer, operational, and climate data he has helped many clients achieve and sustain measurable improvements in various service and manufacturing environments.

Among his specialties are helping organizations learn and utilize Six Sigma tools and techniques as a method for process design, redesign, and improvement. Greg excels at team training, group facilitation, and project support. He has supported project focusing on such things as: establishment of baseline measures, quality improvement, cost reduction, process time reduction, workflow improvement, and workload reduction.

Greg has a proven track record helping clients achieve improvements across many industries including: finance, insurance, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, healthcare, high tech, medical devices, utilities, printing, entertainment, public education, and human services. Clients he has worked with include Pfizer, Vanguard Group Investments, American Express, Sun Microsystems, Sears, Becton-Dickinson, Federated Department Stores, Cendant Mobility, Ocwen Financial Corporation, Johnson Controls, St. Paul Insurance Company, PPG, Avery Dennison, Millipore, and Joseph E. Seagram & Sons.

The results Greg has helped clients achieve include: reduced losses due to product fulfillment errors by $9 million annually; improved first-call resolution by 50%; integrated multiple departments with dramatic improvements in workflow, data integrity, data management, and data retrieval; reduced data entry errors by 60 percent; improved claims processing time by 45 percent; reduced manufacturing cycle times by more than 50 percent; reduced manufacturing changeover times by 90 percent; improved first-pass yield by over 50 percent; eliminated 25 percent of administrative tasks and achieved annual savings of over $500,000 in departmental operating expenses; provided process documentation and baseline measures.

Greg has published work in: The Journal for Quality and Participation, National Productivity Review, Training & Development and Quality Digest. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Manhattanville College and his Master's degree from the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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Pamela's background as a line manager and improvement team leader in the services industry gives her special insights into applying Six Sigma and change leadership skills to diverse groups and organizations. She has more than 12 years experience as a consultant and trainer, advising clients on implementation and project execution.

Prior to entering consulting, Pamela spent most of her career in the relocation services industry, with such companies as Equitable, Travelers and PHH (now Cartus). She led projects to improve skills and processes in senior management, customer service, information systems and billing — to name just a few.

She moved into the consulting field in 1994, and in 1996 became part of the pioneering Pivotal Resources team that supported the global roll-out of Six Sigma and DMAIC for GE Capital. Pam's expertise in and understanding of the nuances of change management led to her becoming a certified Change Acceleration Process (CAP) facilitator, for which she has been a highly sought-after resource.

Thanks to Pivotal's work with NBC, in 1998 Pamela took a one-year assignment consulting on the launch of the "QNBC" improvement initiative. Since then she has been active with a wide range of clients in the implementation of Lean Six Sigma—including Sears, Cisco, Vanguard Group, TRW, Johnson and Johnson, Starwood, Sun Microsystems, GMAC Insurance and A&P.

Pamela holds an M.S. in Human Resources Education from Fordham University and a multidisciplinary B.A. from Boston University.

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Clare DiFrisco is an experienced business professional with hands-on experience across many industries. She has been providing Six Sigma training and consulting for the past six years and has worked with national and international customers such as Cisco Systems, HSBC, British Petroleum, GMAC, Sears Commercial Sales and Army Air Force Exchange Services. In addition to large organizations, Clare has worked with start-up companies, rapid-growth organizations and corporate integrations.

Clare has taught and provided coaching and consulting of Six Sigma, Process Improvement, Process Design, Lean (for transactional businesses and for job shops) and Change Management methods and practices. She is experienced in working with entry-level personnel as well as executive staff and provides hands-on consultation and guidance to ensure successful implementations. Her own business, process improvement and design experience of over 20 years allows her to effectively translate business improvement theory into application to real-life situations and scenarios.

Prior to becoming a consultant, Clare was the Vice President of Information Technology for Concentra Managed Care (a high-tech health care cost containment and worker's compensation company). She played a significant role in the growth of a corporate subsidiary from $18M to over 100$M and played a pivotal role in the technical and operational integration of a 5-company merger. Clare led the Design of the technical infrastructure and operational processes to support growth and industry demands. As a member of the corporate steering committee, she led teams of process owners in improvement and re-design projects. The system included an integration of balanced scorecard, executive dashboard and robust reporting functionality. Also responsible for budget planning, she saw this major undertaking completed at 95% of planned expenditures.

Clare holds Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees in Nutrition from the Clayton College of Natural Health in Birmingham, Alabama.

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Chet is a seasoned finance executive whose interest in addressing critical business and operational problems led to a "second career" in consulting and continuous improvement.  He has been providing consulting and training in process improvement and Six Sigma concepts for the past 13 years, working with such organizations such as adidas-Salomon, Clorox, Cisco Systems, GE Capital, Principal Financial Group, Sears Logistics, Sun Microsystems and others.  His global experience includes work in such locations as London, Paris, Hong Kong, Sydney and Tokyo.

Prior to becoming a consultant, Chet spent 15 years in financial management positions within Hewlett Packard; he has operations and financial consulting experience with Coopers and Lybrand and KPMG as well.  Chet has also worked with rapid-growth organizations and played a significant role in the growth of one start-up business whose revenue grew from $40M to $800M in a seven-year period.

Chet has taught Six Sigma skills to entry-level personnel, mid-level managers and executive staff. His outstanding support of the Six Sigma initiative at GE led to his work with several GE suppliers that have, in many cases, launched initiatives of their own. Chet's own financial experience has been especially valuable in aiding his clients with tracking and reporting results of process improvement and redesign efforts. His 35-year career has equipped him with a keen ability for translating skills and concepts into real-life application.

Chet has been a CPA since 1969 and holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Accounting from Brigham Young University.

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Evans is a dynamic consultant and instructor in Lean and Six Sigma process change methodologies. For over a decade he has led quality initiatives in several industries ranging from financial services to heavy manufacturing.

Following a career in the Air Force, Evans began working in the quality arena in 1991 as part of a team bringing Total Quality Management to a large mutual fund company. Evans then assisted multiple locations of International Paper to improve processes and leadership practices during the late nineties. Later, he was part of a team responsible for bringing Six Sigma to Cendant (now PHH) Mortgage and supported Six Sigma work in several other units of Cendant Corporation. In addition to training Black Belts and Green Belts, he led the team charged with redesigning the firm's core mortgage origination and underwriting process, which achieved a quantum leap in loan compliance and quality (essential to resell mortgages and free capital for additional loans).

As a Lean Six Sigma consultant Evans has worked with several leading companies to assist in applying Lean and Six Sigma to their core business activities. At BP, he has been a lead MBB consultant for the Refining and Marketing group's “Process Fitness” initiative, providing training, project coaching, materials development and implementation support. At Thompson and with the US Navy, he is overseeing the selection and execution of several improvement projects. Other clients with whom he has recently worked include Cisco, TriWest Healthcare Alliance, GMAC Insurance and American Greetings. His diverse experience, engaging presentation style and understanding of the challenges of organization change implementation make Evans an effective and sought-after consultant and trainer.

Evans holds a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing from Virginia Tech and an MBA from Golden Gate University.

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Colleen brings over 20 years of consulting experience and 10 years of experience designing and implementing Six Sigma programs. Colleen's dynamic approach to training involving targeted storytelling from her broad experience makes her an exceptional instructor and consultant.

Colleen has served on design teams for Six Sigma deployment while working for companies such as BHPBilliton, GE Capital, and GE Nuclear Services. Her roles included coaching business leaders, training over 3000 participants in the technical DMAIC approach and facilitating project teams as a Master Black Belt. Colleen understands process design requirements from a customer-driven perspective while balancing the strategic focus of improving business productivity and costs. She also teaches and coaches in change management and advanced statistical methods. Colleen's training courses are consistently evaluated as outstanding.

Colleen has been consulting in the service industry following several years with Mercer Management Consulting, where she managed Baldrige-based quality improvement initiatives and helped teams to redesign business processes for clients including Sun Microsystems, American Express, Consolidated Freightways, University of Colorado and Neighborhood Health Plans. In addition, Colleen has experience with General Motors where she designed and implemented statistical process control systems and with Dun & Bradstreet where she managed an operations staff of 40 and led strategic business improvement projects.

Since joining Pivotal Resources, she has been lead consultant on projects for Brinker International (Chili's Restaurant) and Target Stores. She has been a very popular instructor for Champions and project leader with numerous clients including adidas, Genworth, Cisco, Omnium and i3.

Colleen holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Bradley University and an M.B.A. from Loyola University of Chicago. She has been a speaker at the Rocky Mountain Quality Conference and GE's Nuclear Annual Quality Conference.

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Matt works with clients to coordinate training logistics for Pivotal Resources. He also negotiates contracts and rates to facilitate our individual and small group workshops and plans company events and client meetings. When not handling logistics or planning meetings, he helps produce instructional materials by formatting and editing workbooks and creating graphics.

Matt began his professional career in the sales and catering department of the Radisson Hotel Los Angeles Westside. As an Executive Meeting Manager, he was responsible for planning and implementing corporate meetings and social events, writing contracts and developing new business for the hotel. This experience provided a practical education in meeting planning and logistics, which he has applied to his current position since joining our team in January, 2003.

Matt holds a B.A. in European Studies with a concentration in French from the University of California, Los Angeles.

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Bob has been active as a management consultant, professor, and author since 1971. He is a senior consultant with Pivotal Resources and a co-author of two best-selling Six Sigma books, The Six Sigma Way, and The Six Sigma Way Team Fieldbook. Since 1996 he has trained and coached Six Sigma teams at companies such as General Electric, Sun Microsystems, Federated Department Stores, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Cisco Systems. Bob's talent for translating abstract business concepts into a humorous narrative of practical examples appeals to a wide audience in a multitude of industries. His practical yet strategic outlook also allows him to relate to both senior managers and frontline associates.

Bob was the Training Manager for Continuous Quality Improvement for 7,000 employees at Sutter Health, Sacramento's largest private employer. In the 1980s, Bob was the lead consultant for the Izwana Participation Project at Western Deep Levels gold mine in South Africa, teaching problem solving to miners 8,000 feet underground. He was also the lead consultant for General Motors' "Common Sense" quality program for line employees in Detroit and Indianapolis.

In addition to clients like NBC and Employers' Reinsurance Corporation, Bob has provided process improvement training for Alamo Learning Systems, US Sprint, the Quality Alert Institute, and many government agencies, including the California Department of Corrections and the Colorado State Patrol.

Bob's doctorate is from Northwestern University, and he has been a Professor at Amherst College, the State University of New York, and California State University at Sacramento.

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Mike is both a respected author as well as an accomplished consultant and trainer in process management, design/redesign and improvement. He specializes in service and transactional business efforts, from financial services to real estate.

Mike's early career included over a decade with Federal Express, beginning in fleet reliability, where he planned maintenance and acquisition for 40 thousand vehicles, and later rising to lead customer service performance management for FedEx's international operations, including 41 international call centers.

He joined American Express in the late 1990s, where he played a key role in the company's extensive Global Six Sigma initiative. He trained and certified several hundred of AmEx's Black and Green Belts, along with Champions, Master Black Belts and Yellow Belts. Mike served as Chairman of the Finance Quality Council and led the development and deployment of the Six Sigma Design (DFSS) process and methodology. He also helped establish cross-functional process management and measures in several areas of the business. Projects he coached achieved $38 million in savings and revenue gains.

As a consultant, his work has focused in helping clients plan and implement Lean Six Sigma structures, select projects, implement core process management and tie results to strategic goals. He has also devoted time to two successful book projects for McGraw-Hill: What is Six Sigma Project Management? (2005) and Six Sigma for Financial Services (2006), both co-authored with Pivotal's Vice President of International Operations, Rowland Hayler.

Mike is a Certified Quality Engineer and has long been active in the American Society for Quality, for which he is the current President.

He holds an MS in Industrial Systems Engineering and a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a Finance emphasis, both from the University of Memphis.

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As Office Manager, Rachelle oversees much of the internal operations at Pivotal Resources. Her responsibilities include keeping the office in running order and ensuring that employees receive the support and resources needed to perform their jobs effectively.

Perhaps her most critical role, Rachelle is in charge of all accounting activities, which includes invoicing clients, bill processing, expense processing and overall cash flow management. Her accuracy and timeliness plays a huge part in keeping the processes flowing smoothly at Pivotal.

Also in charge of human resources, Rachelle works with new employees to make their integration into the company a smooth experience. As the company benefits liaison, she communicates to employees about all available benefits and consults with each individual about best possible options. Her efforts have a great impact on the motivation and moral of the entire Pivotal staff, which directly translates into the exceptional work we do for our clients.

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Tracy O'Rourke is a Certified Black Belt who advises companies on all aspects of Six Sigma, including strategic planning, implementation, training, coaching and driving project closure.

Tracy started her improvement career at GE Appliances as Western Regional Account Manager where she utilized Six Sigma tools to achieve a 20% growth in her region. Her successes promoted her to the role of National Training Manager, allowing her to develop a total training program for the GE Warranty Management Division and facilitate training to customers across the nation. She later became a Certified Field Black Belt, training employees and supporting regional managers and sales representatives in their Six Sigma projects. She was also responsible for increasing awareness and educating GE customers on Six Sigma application and methodology.

Since her time at GE Tracy has worked with various companies, including Shea Homes, Callaway Golf, Washington Mutual, Cisco Systems, Sears & Roebuck, Yum! Corporation and Becton-Dickinson. She has coached over 100 Green Belts and Black Belts, trained over 1000 people and helped bring over 150 Six Sigma projects to success.

Tracy holds a Bachelor's degree in English Literature from San Francisco State University and an MBA in Leadership and Managing Organizational Change from the Graziadio School of Business at Pepperdine University.

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Jef has been providing training and consulting services in manufacturing, food products, high tech and financial service industries for over 20 years. His primary expertise lies in performance improvement in the administrative, product development and manufacturing environments.

For the past five years Jef has focused on assisting companies in the design, development and implementation of Six Sigma programs. He has extensive experience in the delivery of DMAIC and Design for Six Sigma training to Green Belts, Black Belts and Master Black Belts.

Jef has a unique ability to take the most difficult concepts and deliver them in an understandable manner. His broad experience base enables him to draw on real life examples that connect well with various groups.

Jef also has extensive experience abroad; taking his Six Sigma training and consulting experience to the international divisions of major Fortune 500 companies in England, Sweden, Korea and Mexico.

Prior to becoming a full-time consultant and trainer, he spent four years with RWD Technologies where he was Chief Engineer and Director of Manufacturing Services. Jef has also worked for the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (R&D), where he was the Manager of Technology Transfer, after working for Chrysler Corporation as the Supervisor of Manufacturing Training.

Jef is a certified Manufacturing Engineer (SME) and a Certified Reliability Engineer (ASQ), and has written and presented many papers on training and automation at international conferences. He holds a B.S. and an M.S. from Central Michigan University.

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Bill Stieber, Ph.D., CSP is an internationally recognized business consultant, trainer and author. A former Deming consultant, Bill's expertise over the last 20 years enables him to bring enormous wisdom and insight to his clients. By using entertaining and often musically-related metaphors (Bill plays saxophone and guitar), he delivers substantial value and always engages his audience, whether speaking to a full room or one-on-one.

In his assignments implementing Total Quality and Lean Six Sigma, he has trained and coached process improvement teams, facilitated the design of strategic plans, implemented behavioral and customer surveys and led training programs in a variety of process management concepts, including leadership practices, customer service, problem solving tools and team building. His experience crosses many industries, such as financial services, media, healthcare, pharmaceutical and chemicals, and touches many geographies, including North and South America, Europe and Asia.

Bill's career in organization development started at CIGNA Corporation. He served in a variety of posts including Regional Training and Personnel Director, Organization and Succession Planning Manager and Director of Corporate Management Development and Training. He also served as Director of Corporate Training and Development for an insurance brokerage in New York and as Vice President of Training and Development for a financial services division of Xerox Corporation. Prior to joining Pivotal, Bill served as an organization design and development consultant for AT&T Capital where he facilitated the complete redesign of two financial service units.

Bill has been recognized for his leadership in quality improvement and other large-scale improvement initiatives in numerous organizational settings. He has served as Senior Lead Examiner for the Pennsylvania Quality Leadership Award. He has a Ph.D. in Adult and Organization Development from Temple University, an MBA from LaSalle University and a BS in Education from the Pennsylvania State University.

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Elisabeth has designed, developed and delivered sessions ranging from coaching and consulting skills to process improvement and specifically Six Sigma initiatives for many Fortune 100 companies such as GE Capital, Johnson & Johnson, Eastman Kodak, Federated Department Stores, Starwood Resorts, and Vanguard Financial Services.

A certified Black Belt trainer for GE Capital, Elisabeth adapted the Six Sigma programs for all of GE's Vendor Financial division. She most recently designed and delivered a process improvement simulation and a training program as part of the first worldwide rollout of a Six Sigma initiative in the hospitality industry. Additionally, she was involved in kicking off the first Six Sigma initiative for a
South African bank.

Elisabeth's previous professional experience included a position as a senior associate for Rath & Strong management and a consultant for Idea Champions. Elisabeth is also a founding member of Boston Comedy Theater, an improvisational performance and training group that develops customized workshops for corporations.

Elisabeth Swan earned her B.A. in English with a concentration in Computer Science from Barnard College/Columbia University in New York City.

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Carolyn has helped design and implement effective Six Sigma and process improvement training for many top companies, including Calloway Golf, Cendant Corp, Cisco Systems, Clorox, Federated Logistics, GE Capital, Kaiser Permanente, Sears, Starwood Hotels and Sun Microsystems. She is an experienced executive and Black Belt workshop leader and is one of the best in the business in generating enthusiasm for Six Sigma concepts, providing keen insights into getting results.

Carolyn spent her early career at Texas Instruments, where she served as head of training and organization development for TI's Chemical Operations Division. While at TI, she was a key player in several corporate-wide process improvement and team development initiatives and was a coach for front-line and professional groups. Her work led to significant measurable improvements in productivity and employee satisfaction. At TI she developed areas of expertise in customer service and satisfaction, process documentation, teamwork and collaboration, quality tools and coaching skills.

Carolyn was a member of the first team of instructors launching Six Sigma at GE Capital, and she went on to develop several of the key DMAIC case studies still in use at GE today — in addition to training hundreds of Six Sigma Black Belts. Today, as Senior Consultant, she not only continues to teach DMAIC to Black Belts and teams across the country, she also serves as client manager for Pivotal's services at Sears and Cendant Corporation.

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Karlo provides support to the Marketing and Sales efforts of Pivotal Resources - from initiating and developing new opportunities to producing marketing collaterals for distribution and the web. His dedication and involvement with many aspects of the daily operation of the corporate office, including process improvement and administration, allows our entire team to focus on our clients.

Prior to his work with Pivotal, Karlo was employed with Washington Mutual, holding positions in both operations and sales. His responsibilities included training newly hired employees and creating customized marketing material to assist loan consultants in new business development. During his five years at WaMu, Karlo helped improve turn-around times and streamline communication processes to increase application and funding production.

Karlo joined Pivotal Resources in November of 2007 and is currently continuing education with a focus in Marketing.

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Craig is an experienced consultant and has extensive experience conducting Six Sigma training – both DMAIC and in DMADV design processes. He also has experience adapting DMAIC materials to individual business environments. He has worked with senior management in a variety of industry segments to aid in solving problems and suggesting ways to increase effectiveness and profit. In turn, he has facilitated the development of company mission, vision and strategic plans for many organizations.

He has worked with many clients including GE Capital, Johnson & Johnson, Sears, Quest and holds a M.B.A. from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

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Ramya comes to Pivotal Resources with a diverse background in process improvement, marketing, promotions and business development. Her experience – in both Fortune 500 companies as well as technology start-ups – has included a number of successful national and regional change efforts.

Ramya started her career in the entertainment Industry, handling promotions for Sony Music in India. Her next stint was at Reliance Entertainment, a start-up that introduced broadband interactive television in India. Before joining Pivotal, Ramya served as a certified Black Belt with GE Capital where her role included process improvement, strategic planning, client interface and operations overview – as well as training and project mentoring. Her project work, involving resource optimization and core business consolidation, achieved close to $750,000 in savings.

With Pivotal, Ramya's work matches her diverse experience and includes project consulting and facilitation, product development and training. She has done extensive consulting work on a variety of projects for Cisco Systems, GMAC Insurance and several other clients. She also serves as Product Manager for Pivotal's Qualification and Certification services.

Ramya has a B.S. in Math, Physics & Chemistry from Osmania University, India, and earned her MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India.

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Mark Welch has more than 20 years of experience in manufacturing management and industrial engineering. Specializing in Lean Enterprise solutions, he has led successful process improvement programs for many companies across the US. Mark is currently working with several Fortune 500 corporations applying Lean techniques in their transactional areas on projects as far reaching as hiring, quoting, and claims processing.

Mark started his career in quality management at a $1.5 billion aerospace corporation in Akron, Ohio. He then worked as the Manufacturing Manager for a global computer company in Silicon Valley, where he successfully implemented Demand Flow Manufacturing (Lean) and helped achieve ISO 9001 certification. He continued to build and apply his expertise in quality services by managing manufacturing operations for a progressive ambient lighting manufacturer in Berkeley, CA, and then as a consultant for NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership in New York City.

Later Mark introduced the Lean Enterprise program to the Northern California member of MEP. Here he educated more than 400 people from 100 different companies through his “Principles of Lean Enterprise” workshops.

Mark holds a B.S. Degree in Industrial Management and is a member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME). He is also a former Chapter Chairman of the Society of Manufacturing Engineering (SME).

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George is a ASQ Certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt with broad expertise in such areas as training, facilitating and application consulting in problem solving and Six Sigma Belts. He also implemented Statistical Process Control (SPC) in the appliance, defense, aerospace, automotive and financial industries.

George gained his experience at Ford's Six Sigma where he trained Black and Green Belts and Ford's Global 8-Disciplines where he was in charge of the Team Oriented Problem Solving. He later became the Six Sigma Instructor for Motorola University and the Operational Excellence Instructor (Six Sigma for Service) for Washington Mutual. His expertise also includes Process Control Methods (SPC), Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (FMEA), Experimental Design (DOE), Parameter & Tolerance Design, QS-9000/ISO-9000 Assessment Survey and Quality Operating System (QOS).

George holds a Masters degree in Statistics from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada and is a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality and the Ohio Academy of Science. He is a Quality Assurance Professional since 1985. He is fluent in English, French and Hungarian.

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