Our Team

Our Interim Management & Consulting Team

Bob King

Bob King is a strong executive leader with over 30 years of experience leading organizations. The breadth of his experience ranges from Fortune 100 companies to $10M privately held concerns.
 
Prior to starting C.O.O. Services, LLC, Bob served as President of a national manufacturer of office supplies. During his nine years there, sales grew over 300%. In addition to two mergers and subsequent integrations, Bob developed the strategic plan that called for the company to move from a small west coast only player to become a major factor in the industry throughout North America. Major clients included 3M, Costco and Staples.

In the 1990’s, Bob served in several capacities, for Georgia-Pacific and Unisource Worldwide (or predecessor companies), a then New York Stock Exchange listed, $9B, distribution and logistics company.

Bob also serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Seametrics, a Kent, WA based manufacturer of magnetic metering systems.

EDUCATION:

BA in Economics and Political Science (double major) from Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT.
M.B.A. from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
Certified Management Consultant (CMC), Institute of Management Consultants.
Certified Exit Planning Advisor, (CEPA) from the Exit Planning Institute.
Certified Executive Coach.
Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA).
Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).

Bob King

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PERSONAL:

Married for over 35 years, Bob and his wife, Jeannie, have three adult children; boy, girl twins and a younger daughter, all who are working professionals in Washington State.

Community Service: Currently sits on the Board of C3 Leaders. Bob also serves as Vice Chair of the Board at Warm Beach Christian Camp and Conference Center. He is an avid sportsman who enjoys fly fishing, skiing, hiking, trap shooting, and golf.

He tries to live his life by his 7-F Mission Statement: Faith, Family, Friends, Fun, Fluency, Fitness and Finances.

Interim Independent Consultants

Paul Abdalla

Paul Abdalla is a strong and passionate leader with over 34 years of experience leading and managing manufacturing operations. Previous experiences include a wide range of manufacturing such as semiconductor fabrication and assembly, electro-mechanical products, electronic devices, metal fabrication, woodworking, and glass/mirror processing. 

Paul has had the opportunity to train in Japan while working for Panasonic Corporation of America where he gained a disciplined focus of lean manufacturing including waste reduction, 5S, flow manufacturing, and continuous improvement. With this in mind, Paul is a
hands-on, results oriented management professional that can efficiently blend good business sense and years of proven, practical experience to quickly eliminate unnecessary processes and identify practical improvements in the work area. 

Paul’s passion is to put production areas into order and fix what is not working properly using proven Lean methodologies. Typical approaches have been work area transformations by the establishment of flow manufacturing, one-piece builds, value stream mapping, and the incorporation of 5S, which are essential components to decreasing waste and increasing
value to the customer.

A proven record of working effectively with a team; successes include increased production output, defect reduction, transfer and integration of work groups into Operations, systems development, and training production leaders.

EDUCATION:
Paul earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Management from the University of Phoenix.

PERSONAL:
Married for 32 years, Paul and his wife, Monika, have three sons. The oldest is an electrician, the middle son is a software engineer, and the youngest is a recent college graduate working in finance. Paul is a competitive runner who has set several age group records and has competed in national level running competitions for the past 18 years – achieving two national championships and numerous second place finishes. He also enjoys hiking, skiing, cycling, and is an avid woodworker.

Kurt Armbruster

Kurt is an energetic and seasoned executive specializing primarily in engineering, logistics, and manufacturing companies. He achieves fast but holistic long-lasting change across all areas of operations: delivering greater profits, sustainable business growth, and rapid launch of new products, services and sales. He has held P&L responsibility in organizations up to $100MM and is experienced in operational excellence, supply-chain, engineering, manufacturing, finance, sales & marketing, and new product development

With an early career background in engineering Kurt is a details person who uses data and analysis to assess root causes of a problem. Expert at resolving difficult situations and implementing improved processes and business metrics.

He drives organizational change by building great teams, expecting high performance and engaging the people involved for setting and deploying strategy to maximize buy-in and deployment.

  • Executive Leadership
  • Implementing Lean and TPS
  • International Manufacturing
  • Profit and Loss Management â–ª New Product Development
  • Supply Chain
  • Operational Excellence Culture
  • Sales Growth

As head of a large aerospace division, Kurt successfully grew profitability to 29% while increasing on-time delivery and employee satisfaction. As COO of a $35 Million multi-site service company, he restructured operations and deployed Lean production in service and administration, restricted engineering and operations to deliver on time and successfully grew the company 45% over two years.
 
EDUCATION:
BS Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 
MS Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

PERSONAL:
Kurt is an avid golfer, skier and outdoorsman. He negotiated a high profile and win-win multi-party sale ($32 M) and preservation of Seattle oldest large structure.

Brian L. Haun

Brian Haun is a strong, seasoned executive with over 30 years of experience leading manufacturing companies. He brings a unique mix of functional expertise in operations, engineering, supply chain, finance and marketing. He has run both small and large organizations, ranging from $12 million to $600 million in size.

Brian is a good communicator and a natural leader. He takes the time to listen and get to know people at all levels in the organization. Brian is as comfortable on the shop floor as he is making a presentation to the board of directors or visiting customers. His preferred leadership style is to treat everyone with respect, lead by example, and motivate through positive means. At the same time, he communicates expectations and holds people accountable.

Manufacturing is at the heart of Brian’s core competencies. He is an excellent problem solver, quick to analyze complex situations and identify opportunities for improvement. He understands all the operational pieces that have to come together, including purchasing, inventory control, productivity, and manufacturing best practices. He is quick to learn the technical side of the operation and can operate at the detailed level when necessary.

Over the last 10 years, Brian has been CEO of three different companies. All were privately owned with strong family traditions. In his last role, he was brought in to make difficult changes and find ways to grow the company. Over a three year period, productivity improved, sales grew and earnings doubled. Through all of these experiences, Brian has learned the nuances of family companies and the unique challenges they pose.

EDUCATION: 
MBA, with Majors in Marketing and Finance Northwestern University 
M aster of Science, Industrial and Operations Engineering University of Michigan 
Bachelor of Science, Industrial and Systems Engineering University of Nebraska

PERSONAL: 
Brian is married with two grown daughters and various assorted pets. In his spare time, he enjoys snowboarding, golf, running, reading, and working on cars. Originally from the Midwest, he remains an avid Nebraska Cornhuskers fan. Brian is on advisory boards with local community colleges and high schools, and participates in cancer volunteer activities with his wife.

Ron Higgs

Ron Higgs is an Executive and veteran with more than 20 years of experience in the aerospace and defense industry in operations, engineering management, and program management. Ron’s experience ranges from startups to large corporations.  

Ron served in the Navy as a Naval Flight Officer, Aerospace Engineer, and Program Manager. In his post-Navy career he has worked as a Business Development Manager, Sales Director, Engineering Manager, Management Consultant, and COO. While in a senior leadership position at a major aircraft manufacturer, Ron served as aircraft delivery operations manager for a $200M military aircraft. He instituted process improvements that reduced aircraft delivery time by 50% in a period of 3 months. In his work as an independent management consultant, he has helped local startups to established global brands. He brings high emotional intelligence and is able to quickly assess situations, identify problems, and drive issues to closure. He has a balanced mix of people, technical, analytical and operations skills and is adept at building and maintaining strong relationships and rapidly gaining influence with stakeholders.

EDUCATION:
BA in Mathematics (Operations Analysis) from United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD
MS in Systems Engineering from Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA
Graduate Certificate in Engineering Flight Test from United States Naval Test Pilot School, Patuxent River, MD

PERSONAL:
Ron and his partner Gina live in Kirkland, WA and enjoy spending time with family and friends. 

Ron considers himself a servant leader and is active in the local community; he is a former president of a local resident’s association and a graduate of the community citizens police academy. He currently serves as the President of the King County Library System (KCLS) Board of Trustees. KCLS is one of the largest library systems in the US with an annual budget in excess of $130M. He also serves as a member of the board of directors for Seafair, which is a multi-week festival in Seattle featuring over 30 sanctioned events that reach more than two-million people.

He enjoys traveling, staying fit, and outdoor activities such as snowboarding and mountain biking. He enjoys good food, wine, and craft beer.  

In his daily life Ron focuses on service above self, self-improvement, and making a difference in the lives of others. 

Jennifer Hinds

Jennifer Hinds is an expert in blending technology solutions with business processes to bring valuable management insight to improve financial, functional and team performance. She has over 30 years of experience in building, auditing, implementing, analyzing and ensuring success of business software solutions. She has designed software and managed team building solutions ranging from a supply chain distribution ERP system, expense management systems, security solutions, revenue analytics, business intelligence and customer success solutions. She has integrated those solutions with other leading accounting, banking, marketing, sales, payment and ERP software systems. Her knowledge of how business software is designed provides a unique insight into how businesses can get the most out of the technology they implement for the lowest cost. It also enables her to quickly identify issues with existing systems and find solutions. Jennifer is a self-proclaimed data junkie who digs up trends and patterns to identify metrics that are early indicators for business success or potential issues. This provides tools to companies that they can utilize in the future to keep tabs on key business processes and act quickly when opportunities arise. Examples include finding bottlenecks in manufacturing and distribution processes, flagging cross-sales opportunities, identifying patterns that indicate fraudulent expenses and key statistics that point out customers who were most likely to renew services.

She recently stepped into the CFO role at Hinds-Bock Corp. to lead them through an ERP implementation, and eventually the sale of the company to a publicly traded corporation, including all the due diligence data
collection.

EDUCATION:
She has an accounting degree from the University of Washington Foster School of Business, a background in auditing, and CPA-inactive certification.

PERSONAL:
Jennifer and her husband Gary live in Woodinville with their large Golden-Doodle, Baloo. In her spare time, Jennifer loves to travel, work in her garden and walk/hike with the dog. She has been married for over 25 years and is very proud of her two children who are attending college at Pacific University and Champlain College.

Donald J. Jacques

Hands on, entrepreneurial C-level executive with a track record in general management, operations, durable goods and manufacturing, electronics and industrial products/markets, business & technology development, and finance for industrial and technology-based companies. Charismatic, detail oriented team builder, strategic visionary and tactical leader. 

EDUCATION
MBA - General Management/EMBA from University of Washington
M.S. - Engineering & Solid Mechanics from Colorado State University
B.S. - Civil & Environ. Engineering from University of Rhode Island

SKILLS
Individual & Team Development, Process Improvement, Strategic Planning, Product & Business Development, Budgeting & Financial Modeling, Life Cycle Cost Analysis & Value Selling, Executive & Technical Sales, Lean Manufacturing, Domestic/International Supply Chain, Contract Management & Negotiation, Fundraising & Investor Relations.

John Jones

John is a high-integrity and energetic executive, known for his effective team leadership, strategic vision and track record of creating exceptional results in complex and highly competitive environments. John is tenacious at driving constant improvement in business and technology operations, product delivery, process improvement, and customer service. In a decorated technology and business career, John has held roles that include CIO, COO, and CEO, in startups, mid-size, and billion-dollar international organizations.

Since 2012, John has been providing clients with executive assistance in the form of interim C-Suite support as well as executive and leadership advising and coaching. He is often engaged to provide guidance and solutions on the complexities of business and technology strategy and problem solving.

From 2013 - 2016, John was engaged with a private university in California as in interim CIO and then COO, leading a technology turn-around and developing a roadmap aligned with organizational strategies. He then worked with the executive team on business operations realignment and organizational change across all campuses.

John has recently spent time in the Middle-East working with the largest university in UAE. He has also been engaged with privately held group of companies in Kuwait (technology, healthcare, and education companies). In both, he was engaged to assess the technology infrastructures and business processes, advising the executive groups, and helping to map technology needs for future growth and development.

Since 2017, John has been engaged as interim CIO with a local Bellevue company orchestrating a digital transformation and preparing the company for acquisition. John is married and lives in Sammamish, WA, and when not engaged with a client is most likely found on a local river chasing steelhead with a fly rod.

Areas of Expertise:
- Business and Divisional Turnarounds
- Strategic Alignment and Innovation
- Leadership/Team Development
- Executive Coaching and Mentorship
- Product Development and Commercialization

Sandy King

Sandy King brings 14 years’ experience in Operations and IT management and 13 years of Consulting in Process Development and Project Management. Sandy specializes in strategy, planning, design and implementation of business processes and systems. Her focus is in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and related applications such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Business Intelligence (BI), and their alignment with the strategic goals of her clients. Sandy also has hands-on experience in managing process integration between functional roles such as sales to estimating and engineering, engineering to manufacturing, and through to finance management. Sandy has experience in implementation of support applications such as Barcoding, EDI and CAD. Sandy has completed 60 ERP implementations with a variety of ERP systems such as MS Dynamics AX, MS Dynamics GP, Syteline, Epicor, Fourth Shift, Syspro, Macola, Sage, Abas, 20/20 Technologies and many others. Through management of process and system implementation needs, data migration has been a focus for Sandy’s support of her clients. This includes management of Item master and BOM/Routing structure and cleaning as well as Customer/Vendor structure setup and cleaning.

Sandy has assisted many companies in their application system selection process by identifying requirements through process analysis and documentation of business requirements for use in communication with application solution providers. This focus on business process has resulted in improved and faster implementations. One site implementing an ERP system successfully implemented 6 sites within 5 months. Sandy has worked with many industries including electronics, equipment (large and small), food, medical device, wood products, chemical manufacturing, plastic injection molding, machine shops, composite manufacturers, wood products and service organizations. Sandy is knowledgeable in lean manufacturing, lean accounting principles, Theory of Constraints (TOC) as well as demand planning. Throughout her career in IT and Operations management and in her role as an advisor to many companies, Sandy has participated in streamlining operational and administrative activities. The results of these activities were increased throughput, reduction of cycle times, improvement in product quality, increased customer responsiveness and satisfaction and visibility to key business metrics and trends.

Sandy earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in e-Business from the University of Phoenix

Originally from Illinois, Sandy spent most of her life in Colorado and Washington State. Sandy and her husband enjoy traveling, hiking, biking, scuba diving, riding ATV’s and golf.

Mike Montgomery

Mike Montgomery is an accomplished C-level executive (CEO, COO, CFO). Recognized for outstanding leadership in a broad spectrum of businesses, spanning from small entrepreneurial growth companies to $100 Million revenue operational turnarounds. He has a solid track record of building, recruiting, galvanizing and leading high performance teams that are intensely focused on maximizing revenue and profitability. Rather than accepting the status quo, Mike focuses on figuring out what needs improvement and fixes it. 

With an early career background in Investment Banking - Mergers & Acquisitions, Mike is a numbers person who interprets data to assess reality and determine solutions. He builds an operating culture with a palpable sense of urgency for results. Mike has a “Head Coach” management style and his teams know what success means for their roles. 
  
Most recently, Mike was COO/CFO of the largest provider of workspace solutions and office furniture in the Northwest. He had full P&L responsibility for approx. $125 million in revenue and 500 FTE’s. He increased revenue 52% over two years and created a new operations model to scale with growth. The company was recognized as one of the highest performing Steelcase Dealers in the world. He hired, developed and mentored the next two generations of leadership. 

During a previous two-year period, he was President and CEO of a well-known, branded consumer products company with a 25-year history selling into specialty markets. He worked with various Asian suppliers to streamline sourcing of unfinished product and created a procurement protocol for all imported products. Mike successfully sold the company for 28 shareholders and negotiated a 35% increase over the expected valuation.

Earlier, Mike was COO of a Seattle based manufacturing company where he successfully created a sustainable infrastructure and grew revenues from $18 Million to $38 Million. He restructured most departments (including production, engineering, purchasing, scheduling, marketing and accounting) and built a business development-sales function that was capable of generating over $100 Million in revenues. As COO of a $100 Million service company, Mike restructured operations, built a business development function and successfully grew the company 41% over two years. 
 
EDUCATION:
MBA Studies with a Finance Emphasis, Seattle University, Seattle, WA
BA Hospitality Management, Washington State University, Pullman, WA

PERSONAL:
Mike is an avid sailor and outdoorsman. 

Paul Pomeroy

Paul Pomeroy is a senior operations executive with 19 years of progressive experience scaling organizations and leading them to profitability. He specializes in engineering, finance and general management, from large companies to small, both foreign and domestic. He has a background in manufacturing operations and corporate development. He has led teams and managed projects across the value chain including operations, business intelligence, market research, sales, product development, joint ventures, M&A and million-dollar process improvements. Paul is adept at uncovering the details of complex problems and leading the teams that fix them.

Currently an independent management consultant, Paul has provided management expertise, business and product development, strategic planning, process mapping and market research to firms and aspiring entrepreneurs to help build out promising ventures, resulting in a patent, two startups and various dilutive and non-dilutive funding arrangements.

Previously, Paul was Vice President, Operations (COO) for Zaio Corporation, a Canadian data analytics company. In that capacity, he led all operational and business functions, took charge of commercializing new technology, and acquired the people, resources and investors needed to push the company forward to a public offering. He clarified the firm’s strategic goals and markets, determined the right business priorities, and created clear and actionable financial and operational systems, resulting in 50 new jobs and $50 million in market value.

Prior to this Paul worked in the aerospace industry. As a Corporate Development Manager in Boeing’s M&A subsidiary, he directed multi-million-dollar strategic projects including venture capital, joint ventures, and acquisitions, and conducted due diligence, negotiations, and organizational development. As a Boeing engineer, Paul worked both in manufacturing and design. In manufacturing, he redesigned processes for increased reliability, standardization, and efficiency, and managed projects that made changes in manufacturing, parts and facilities, resulting in $10 million in cost savings. He also worked as a systems engineer, designing cockpits and flight simulators. Prior to Boeing, Paul was a project manager for Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH, a German aerospace company.

EDUCATION:
Paul holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Calgary and a BS Industrial Engineering from the University of Washington.

PERSONAL:
Paul grew up in the Puget Sound area and is married with two young sons. He volunteers as a judge for local business plan competitions, and acts as an advisor to the UW’s commercialization efforts. He enjoys hiking and tennis, and is an amateur machinist.

Pete Stamper

Pete is a successful CEO and General Manager with a passion for leading manufacturing and services businesses to profitably compete in global markets. He has a proven track record of success in marketing, finance/M&A, and lean manufacturing.

Pete started his career in engineering and then transitioned to general management of B2B manufacturing companies. He draws from nearly a decade of leadership experience with the well-respected Danaher Business System at Danaher and Fortive (NYSE: DHR & FTV), where he had first-hand exposure to best-in-class lean manufacturing, M&A transactions, and global commercial leadership.  

Recently Pete has found success implementing these practices to drive growth and turnarounds of independent companies with $10m to $50m in revenue. As the President of Seattle Safety, LLC, a global leader in crash-test equipment, he led the company through the retirement of a founder while driving over 20% growth. Recently, he leveraged both his General Management and M&A experience to lead the turnaround and carve-out of HydraMaster, a $25m cleaning machine manufacturer based in Mukilteo, WA.

Pete is recognized for setting strong company vision and values to create high-performing cultures that drive change. He has diverse international experience with dual citizenship and multiple languages, having lived and worked in USA, Europe, and Asia. 

Pete holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and both a Masters and Bachelors in Engineering from the University of Michigan.

PERSONAL:
Pete and his family live in Seattle and enjoy spending their free time in the mountains – skiing, backpacking, and climbing. Pete has served on several local non-profit boards and is a volunteer climbing instructor for The Mountaineers.


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