About
Thomas brings 25 years of new product introduction, business optimization, and global operations experience spanning aerospace, engineering services, consulting, and digital to help your solve your problem.
Thomas has led numerous complex, high business value engagements. He was the Airbus A320neo Pilot Team leader representing Spirit Aerosystems where he spent 6 months in Toulouse, France developing the technology and business offering for two $6B nacelle programs. After the 737Max incident, he was assigned to review and modernize the pilot emergency checklist IQRH (Interactive Quick Reference Handbook) resulting in an NPI effort. For Goodrich and Boeing, he has led strategic efforts to globalize work to India. At CDI Aerospace, in addition to improving profitability 18% in less than 6 months, after an internal audit resulted in the termination of the PMO director, Thomas was tasked to rebuild customer confidence in the PMO office where he used the Office Andon and Unified Planning approaches to reach 99.9% OTD and FPY for over 3500 deliverables a year and brought an engine test rig back on schedule avoiding a $1M customer performance fine.
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Work experience
- February 2018 – present
Boeing
► Boeing NOTAMs EcoSystem Global ManagerBoeing Global Services is the digital transformation business unit including Jeppesen technologies Transforming the business within Project Bravo • Built the BGS ($1B) capacity costs analysis tool resulting in a new financial reporting system Building teams • Created a high performing global development team: Frankfurt, Bengaluru, Gdansk, Denver, Seattle Impactful business leadership • Spearheaded the first BGS Seal Beach IQRH engagement after the 737Max incidents resulting in an NPI effort • Launched multiple New Product Development (NPD / NPI) initiatives increasing revenues • Innovation leader producing 8 IP (intellectual property) disclosures a year - November 2013 – June 2015
CDI
► Director: Business Analytics and Operational Excellence► Director: Business Analytics and Operational Excellence Multi-site role focused on developing and deploying business analytics tools to improve EBITDA • FP&A analysis and reporting for the $75M Aerospace & Industrial Equipment Business • Led the Qlik Sense Business Intelligence dashboard deployment • Changing the past and predicting the future ► Director: Product Definition Engineering Created a focus on cost management and increased net income generation from fixed revenue sources. • Led the $25M PDE business unit • Improved the conversion of gross revenue to gross income 18% in 3 months • Reduced OT 75% and indirect labor 50% for a 244 person team • Achieved 100% daily time vouchering supporting comp code budget management • Directed the company’s first Kaizen event focused on LEAP-1B PMO/Design Processes • Started a “train to the work” program supporting demand for ICDS and Model Based Definition • Negotiated major software savings over $100K locking in 2015 preferential pricing • Built a high-performance team able to execute in a dynamic business environment - November 2010 – November 2013
Goodrich
► Director Global AerodynamicsMy primary role was leading the global sourcing of nacelle aerodynamic analysis to the India Design Center. Additionally, by using lean tools and standard work I streamlined analysis processes for all the active nacelle programs. My team in India supported A320neo, C-series, MRJ, 787-8, 787-9, 787-10, A350-900, A350-1000, and KC-390 nacelle aerodynamic development as well as R&D projects and Quality Notes on all production nacelle inlets, fan cowls, and thrust reversers. • Mitigated over $600M in risk on a $6B Program at globalizing aerodynamics to India • Reduced the aerodynamic loss analysis time 80% using lean processes saving $1.3M • Lead technical negotiator for nacelle performance improvement on A320neo and A350 • Responsible for ensuring export control compliance for nacelle work packages sent to India • Led a team of 6 engineers at the India Design Center (Bangalore) from San Diego, CA - Recognized for creating the highest performing international team at UTAS - Globally sourcing recurring engineering to the India Design Center (IDC) - Reduced costs 80% ($1.6M) - Achieved the stretch goal of a 24hr turn for all nacelle aero production questions - Decreased turn-backs / rework from 100% to less than 5% (UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS) is the new name for what was previously Goodrich Aerostructures and before that Rohr.) - January 2008 – November 2010
Spirit AeroSystems
►Manager: Propulsion Analysis, Propulsion Development, and New BusinessI held three positions at Spirit: ►Propulsion Analysis, Propulsion Development, and New Business Manager nacelle (inlet, fan cowl, and thrust reverser), pylon, and fuselage programs. Acoustics, CFD, thermal analysis, SEA, DEA, TBL, and anti-icing. • Developed a company wide CFD approach fostering collaboration, communication, and documentation • Convinced the CIO to support partnering with a new high end computing supplier to develop specialized resources to support advanced analysis • Convinced two major programs to allow buy-back of costs savings to support deployment of new analysis software • Empowered sector leads and clarified responsibilities and priorities • Brought in 5 new software packages to lean analysis • Encouraged strategic focus on fewer projects and short term trackable objectives • Developed a gated review process to mitigate risk as product development costs increase • Improved bid accuracy and project planning using the 6-sigma team ►Engineering Representative to Central Contracts Strategic planning for cost recovery (rotational assignment). Facilitated communication between engineers and legal to work through the TDA back-log. - Directly reported to the General Counsel and responsible for technical oversight / risk mitigation of all intellectual property (PIA, NDA, TDA) agreements and over $10B in technical contracts ►A320-NEO Pilot Team Manager I was the Pilot team leader coordinating the master planning and the analysis efforts supporting the Spirit nacelle offering for the A320-NEO. I worked directly with Airbus in the M01 Building (Toulouse, France) coordinating daily with the US resources. - Manager for a $12B international proposal team building a strong relationship with a new customer - Created the master schedule meeting the 18 month program development plan - October 2004 – December 2007
CPP Wind Engineering Consultants
► Manager: Computer Aided EngineeringI took the company from a single PC to cluster computing supported by an integrated design system where CAD flows smoothly to grid generation and then to CFD. The reverse route was not developed because the design space is controlled by the client. Simply put, the building structural and mechanical components are often very limited in their placement options. In addition to developing the process, I am heavily involved in applied CFD technology development. In this role I continue to actually use the CAE tools (mainly ICEMCFD, Fluent, and Star CCM+) on actual projects and develop new design procedures to expand our overall capabilities. The third aspect of my position is contracts and budgets. I write the Meso-scale modeling sub-contracts and the CFD contracts (except for the client interview portion). A big part of this task is keeping track of how much has been spent on each project. I also handle external license negotiations for CAE software. - August 2003 – August 2004
Saint Louis University
ProfessorTeaching propulsion, aerodynamics, thermodynamics, and heat transfer. - May 2002 – July 2003
Five Star Technical Services, Inc.
► Turbine-Aero Engineer for Rolls Royce (contractor)I developed the methodology to model a-symmetric shrouded turbine blades using ICEMCFD and Fluent. The previous Rolls design system relied on structured grids and the NASA derived ADPAC CFD code. Additional tasks included gridding the JSF Lift Fan using ICEMCFD, creating the JSF impeller performance map using Fluent, and calculating the fluid-side heat transfer coefficients for the combustor-diffuser liner using Fluent. Working for Jack Bruni is the best contracting experience I have had. I later hired an employee through 5-Star while at CPP Wind Engineering and that employee was the best draftman we had on staff. Not only was he technically very good he was also excellent working with everyone. If I decide to contract again Jack would be my first phone call. - March 2001 – March 2002
General Electric (GE)
► Performance Engineer (contractor)I worked in the Systems Performance group (GEPS) as a contractor running and modifying cycle decks. Major projects included the Nuovo Pigone 6-C compressor subroutine rewrite, the transient lumped parameter heat transfer models for the 9-H and 7FA+e that were added to the transient cycle decks, and the updating of the thermodynamics coefficients to match NIST-14 (with the exception of a few errors in the NIST-14 data). I also did a special study investigation of sight glass contamination on the optical pyrometer of an installed engine for FPL. In classic engineering fashion, the problem was it was installed contaminated. - June 2000 – March 2001
Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI)
► Senior Propulsion ResearcherI got to work with Povinelli, Heiser, Pratt, Petters, Haliwell and Blankson on hypersonic engine propulsion systems (primarily PDEs and SCRAMjet isolators). It was a neat experience, but I could not be a post-doc researcher forever... (and Cleveland winters are really hard on a cyclist) - June 1997 – August 1997
Air Force Research Laboratory
► AF-OSR Summer ResearcherThis was a summer research appointment.
Education
- 2021 – 2021
Georgetown University
Master of Arts - MA, International Business and Policy - 2011 – 2013
Cornell University - S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management
Master of Business Administration (MBA), Business Administration and Management, Finance - 2011 – 2013
Queen's University
Master of Business Administration (MBA), Business Administration and Management, General - 1995 – 1999
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering - 1994 – 1995
Stanford University
Master's degree, Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering - 1990 – 1994
University of Missouri-Rolla
Bachelor's degree, Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering