Career Progression and Accomplishments

​​With over 30 years of experience in the Consumer Goods Industry, David Katz is well-positioned to provide practical assistance to Manufacturers and other businesses who would benefit from better planning, improved management and operational processes, or a growing talent base in its organization.

In the first half of his career, David used his engineering and leadership skills to progress through many positions of increasing responsibility, from smaller departments to large, world-class, facilities.  After an assignment as Director of Operations for a Fortune 100 branded consumer goods manufacturer, he left operations and followed a career path in enterprise, marketing, and sales leadership.

In these positions, David had the opportunity to build and lead business strategy processes and new enterprise-level functional systems involving the integrity of its brands.  He led and developed large organizations in distribution and sales, and brought the analytics of his background to consumer goods competitiveness at wholesale and retail.

​​Throughout his career a champion of organizational capability and development, David focuses on engaging with people closest to the work, utilizing analytics and critical thinking to define and resolve problems, and influencing and developing others to build capability.  

Education

M.B.A.

Areas of Focus

Background &​ Capability

Capability Summary

Summary

David served as Plant Engineer, focusing on plant utilities, small capital projects, packaging automation, and environmental controls and compliance.  As an Operations Supervisor working the night shift, he led the commercialization of an important new coffee roasting technology to support the conversion of a National Brand.   While Business Unit Manager of the processing side of a plant being assessed for rationalization, David led asset and labor strategies to convert the facility to lower costs through seven-day operations, then returned to Engineering to lead the plant expansion project to increase capacity by over 30%.

As an Extraction Superintendent, David commercialized a supercritical CO2 coffee decaffeination facility, then served as Operations Manager for a tobacco processing facility with 500 employees, implementing new plant floor work systems to improve efficiency and cost.  Later, David led similar initiatives at a world-class cigarette manufacturing facility of 2400 employees, as Director of Operations. 

David went on to positions outside of operations – first as Director of Business Planning.  Attached to the Senior Leadership team of a Fortune 100 consumer goods company, he had the opportunity to redesign and facilitate the strategic planning process, creating more collaborative and cohesive plans in a company recently reorganized.

As Director of Brand Integrity, David built new company infrastructure to reduce counterfeit and contraband activities involving its brands – and as Director of Sales, developed his organization to achieve business goals while serving key customers.

Today, David translates his experiences into practical support and services for manufacturing owners, operators and their business providers.

B.S., Electrical Engineering