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Our Experience
Who We Are
Bill Cofield
Co-Founder
Bill attended the United States Military Academy at West Point graduating in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science degree concentrated in chemistry, math, and engineering. He served on active duty for 10 years in various leadership positions including Commander of front-line units and Executive Officer of the Garrison at West Point.
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In his first professional civilian role, Bill managed several warehousing and distribution teams for Procter and Gamble. He subsequently managed distribution operations for Stuart Hall and Avery Dennison. While with Avery Dennison he was promoted to manufacturing Plant Manager. Bill provided operational leadership for Rubbermaid Consumer Products as Director of Operations and was later promoted to Vice President of Operations. As VP, he was responsible for strategic leadership over five large manufacturing/distribution operation across the U.S. and Canada producing the numerous home organization and food storage products found in millions of homes around the world. In 2014, Bill took on the role of Vice President of Operations and Supply Chain for MGA Entertainment in the Little Tikes division operating on Ohio, China, and Poland. In 2022 he retired from Mueller Water Products as Senior Vice President of Operations and Supply Chain with operations in the US, Canada, Israel, and China.
Throughout Bill’s career he has led organizations towards achieving the mission and outstanding results in safety, cost, quality, and customer service. His experiences include executing Lean Manufacturing principles that drives a winning culture, building proactive safety and quality management systems, developing, and implementing manufacturing strategies to include large capital projects for growth and margin expansion.
Guy Hatch
Co-Founder
Guy graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science degree concentrated in Management. He served for 5 years as an Air Defense Artillery unit leader and a program officer for an advanced weapon system.
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During his business career, he has led most functional areas across multiple industries and countries culminating in COO and CEO roles. His roots are in manufacturing and operations starting with Johnson & Johnson guiding the efforts to implement lean manufacturing at multiple plants in the U.S and Puerto Rico as well as conducting product and process validation. At United Technologies (now Raytheon Technologies), he established engineering and design centers in several countries, progressed into corporate financial planning, strategy, and M&A roles, and was selected as the general manager for a division creating a new-to-market renewable energy product.
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He was the COO for the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology and established a technology based economic development business incubator assisting startups with business plans, office space, and access to SBIR funding.
Guy became the CEO of On-Site Gas Systems, a business that designs and manufactures oxygen and nitrogen generation equipment for a myriad of applications worldwide. During his tenure, the company was awarded several patents, won nine consecutive Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards, named to the U.S. Fast 500 twice, received the Connecticut Quality Improvement Platinum Award, received the NIOSH Bullard-Sherwood Research- to-Practice Mine Safety Intervention Award, and was the New England Region Small Business Administration Exporter of the Year.
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He earned a Master of Business Administration from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1994 focused on Technology and Business Strategy. He has always been interested in finding and implementing solutions to challenging, ambiguous, and unique problems. These typically cross functions, departments, span of control, and geographies. His experience with both Fortune 50 and small companies provides an opportunity to unite the tools of larger companies with the innovation and speed of smaller companies.
Ellen Houlihan
Partner
Ellen attended the United States Military Academy at West Point graduating in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science degree concentrated in English. After graduation with the third class of women from West Point, she served as a Field Artillery Officer in the United States Army. Among her most notable assignments was as the 4th Infantry Division’s (Mechanized) representative on the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS).
Leaving the military for a multi-decade career in industry, Ms. Houlihan’s experience spans both commercial electronic product development and defense acquisition. She has led every manufacturing process function from raw material qualification and selection to final acceptance shipment.
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She has a Master of Business Administration from Rivier College, where her field of study focused on process development and integration. In 2018, Ms. Houlihan received an executive coaching certification from the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Ms. Houlihan is the first female West Point graduate to be selected by her peers as class president, served as Vice-Chairman for the West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG) Board of Directors, and now serves on the Board for the Office of the Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, also at West Point.
Randy McElroy
Partner
Randy attended the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science degree concentrated in Humanities. He served on active duty for seven years in various leadership positions.
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In his first professional role after military service, he supervised metal fabrication, including stamping, milling, turning and sheet metal, for Square D company. He subsequently moved to Johnson & Johnson, where he worked in a variety of positions of increasing scope and complexity in both operations and engineering, based in both the US and Mexico. In 1993, he took a role as a process engineer in the start-up of a new manufacturing site in Juarez, Mexico focused on technology transfer and production ramp up. He was subsequently promoted to manufacturing business unit manager and then plant manager of the Juarez plant. Upon completion of that assignment, he moved to Cincinnati, OH to take on a new role as Project Director in the R&D area.
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In 2004, after his R&D assignment, he took on further leadership roles as Operations Engineering Director for the Ethicon Endo-Surgery franchise of J&J, including responsibility for technology transfer, new product integration, and lifecycle engineering for 4 R&D franchises and 5 manufacturing sites in the US and Mexico. In 2011, he returned to another assignment as manufacturing plant manager for the Albuquerque, NM plant. Then, in 2014, he moved into a role leading technology transfer and new product integration for another diverse group of franchises that spanned 6 R&D organizations and 7 manufacturing operations. He retired from Johnson & Johnson in 2019, after 27+ years of service.
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Throughout Randy’s career, he has led organizations in complex and dynamic environments on both sides of the border, focusing on driving results in safety, quality, financial performance, customer service, manufacturing efficiency, capital optimization, and talent development. He is fully bilingual in English and Spanish.
Dirk Stevens, Ph. D.
Partner
Dr. Stevens has a BSCE, from the United States Military Academy, an MBA, and a Ph.D. He is an American Society of Quality Certified Quality Manager, Certified Quality Auditor, and is a trained Six Sigma Black Belt. He has also supported other problem-solving projects using Kepner-Tregoe techniques.
He is a member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS), International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE), Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), and the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB). He also has several advisory boards, including PTC, the Global Quality Advisory Council, and an advisor to the Board of Directors, West Point Association of Graduates. Dirk remains connected to industry groups and decision-making bodies through these groups.
He has considerable experience in FDA regulated businesses and with commercial products. Dirk has experience in Lean Manufacturing, multiple problem-solving methods, FDA Regulations for Drugs, Devices, and Tissue Products, ISO 13485, and ISO 9001. This experience includes clean room manufacturing for drugs, devices, and biologics, reliability engineering, and quality improvement techniques and processes.
Dirk has vast knowledge of regulatory turnarounds, particularly those involving the Food and Drug Administration. He has created responses and developed programs for FDA Warning Letters, government citations, and corrective action requests from regulators from other countries. His problem-solving skills, techniques, and excellent auditing capabilities have supported these turnarounds.
Mid-sized companies I have supported include MiMedx, Omnicell, Alvogen Pharmaceuticals, and Intrinsic Therapeutics.