Lee Cole

Summary

A leader in moving new products and technologies out of development and into the marketplace, with a focus on execution, simplicity, and structure Four Engineering / Product Development turnarounds, plus a successful startup. The startup became a two-time INC 500 winner: in the top 50 both years. Three teams led their respective industries. Two had successful exits. Another became profitable in six months after years in the red. Led engineering teams of 130+. Past President of a 600-person non-profit corporation. Physicist by training - Taught engineers and can grasp the fundamentals of most engineering issues rapidly. Management/Executive by practice - Managed teams both large and small. Coordinated with internal and external groups representing R&D, Manufacturing, Marketing, Legal, Finance, and HR. Held a Marketing title once. Served as Program Manager on groups of 20+ separate projects in multiple fields. Have reported to CxOs, Presidents, GMs, and Owners for most of my private sector career. Agile - Have managed agile development in both software (common) and machinery (less common). Excellent explanatory skills - Have taught Physics, Medical Physics, and Computer Science academically. Often teaching business realities to engineers and technical realities to the C-Suite these days. Strong analytic skills - required for theoretical Physics - and numerical computation skills. Can be hands-on when necessary. In a turn-around situation, that is often necessary to see what the true process is, as opposed to the planned process or the one management thought was happening. Have driven a fork-lift to deliver Integrated Circuits, and fixed a bug or two to see what the software tools, processes, and turn-around times were. Programming has been a tool since academia. Have programmed in 29 languages at last count. The most well known being Java, Python, FORTRAN, C/C++, and Lisp. Nine US patents ranging from risk-management for securities trading to architectural products.